Antony Gormley: 'Politics and economics have failed us – that's why art is so important'
There is something deeply disturbing about Antony Gormley’s new body of work. Bunker comprises eight hollow figures made of concrete and posed in a variety of positions. They lead from the entrance of White Cube Bermondsey, along the central corridor and into the heart of his new exhibition, Body Politic.
“They are literally usable bunkers, they have an access panel at the bottom,” he explains. Each fits precisely one body. The idea of it makes me break out into a cold sweat.
“You could go into those extremely tight spaces and feel protected,” Gormley, 73, says when we meet at his studio complex in Kings Cross. “But there's a paradox, isn't there, between the idea of sanctuary and the idea of prison, that both things are true – in order for you to feel really protected, you also have to be in a straitjacket.”
This show comprises “probably the most obviously political work” he’s ever made. We’re living, he says, “in a very extreme moment,” defensively closing ourselves off. “All of those promises from the
