''Field'' (1991) is a sculpture by

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

artist Antony Gormley. It consists of approx. 35,000 individual

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

figures, each between 8 and 26 cm high, installed on the floor of a room facing the viewer. The figures were sculpted in Cholula,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

by about 60 members of a Texca family of brickmakers, under the supervision of the artist. The sculpture received a lot of media attention upon its first display, and many affectionate parodies. ''Field'' has been installed and displayed at various locations. The specific configuration is changed to suit each location, but the miniature figures are always placed to form a dense carpet with each figure looking towards the viewer. Ideally the Field is extended through a doorway or round a corner, so that the figures going out of sight leave the impression of an unlimited horde. Several other versions of ''Field'' have subsequently been created, including *''Amazonian Field'' (1991) made in

Porto Velho Porto Velho (, ''Old Port'') is the capital of the Brazilian state of Rondônia, in the upper Amazon River basin, and a Catholic Metropolitan Archbishopric. The population is 548,952 people (as of the IBGE 2021 estimation). Located on the border of ...

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(approx. 24,000 figures) *''Field for the British Isles'' (1993) made in St Helens near

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

in the UK (approx. 40,000 figures) *''European Field'' (1993) made in Östra Grevie, Sweden (approx. 40,000 figures) *''Asian Field'' (2003) made in

Xiangshan County, Guangdong Xiangshan County, also spelled Hsiangshan, Siangshan, Heungsan, and Heungshan, was a former county in Southern China. Since 1912, it was a county in Kwangtung Province ("Guangdong"), in the Republic of China. It was renamed Zhongshan County (then ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

province,

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(approx. 190,000 figures) *''Field for the Art Gallery of New South Wales'' (1989) ''Field for the British Isles'' was typical in recruiting some 100 volunteers from the pupils and their extended families, of two local schools in St Helens. Each volunteer was given a portion of the 30 tonnes of clay required, along with some loose instructions specifying the rough size and proportions for the figures. An accidental feature of the original Field was that Texca family involved people aged from 6 to 60 working on the figures, and Gormley felt that the involvement of three generations of a family should be continued in all the subsequent versions. Gormley has also made several other works entitled ''Field'', but these are smaller groups of life size figures more typical of Gormley's earlier work. In 1994, Gormley won the

Turner prize The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award) ...

with a collection of his work, including ''Field for the British Isles'', shown at the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

References

External links

Antony Gormley's Official siteOverview of the ''Field'' project''Field'' at the Tate Liverpool
in 2004

review of ''Field for the British Isles'', exhibited at the British Museum in 2002. {{Antony Gormley British art Installation art works Outdoor sculptures Sculptures by Antony Gormley 1991 sculptures Terracotta sculptures