STAY
Cloisters Studio, Worcester Boulevard
Title of artwork: STAY
Artist: Antony Gormley
Date: 2015-16
Category of work: sculpture
Media: Iron
Where you can see it: North Quad
Thanks to: Christchurch City Council Public Art Advisory Group, SCAPE Public Art, the artist
Te Matatiki Toi Ora The Arts Centre is home to half of a two-part public artwork, STAY by acclaimed British artist Sir Antony Gormley. The two parts are identical in form but stand in very different locations. The first figure was installed in the middle of the Ōtākaro Avon River in 2015 as part of SCAPE 8: New Intimacies. The second figure was installed at The Arts Centre in October 2016.
Gormley is a highly significant contemporary artist, winner of many awards including the Turner Prize, whose public artworks elsewhere include the towering Angel of the North in Gateshead, UK. He was approached to create a work for Ōtautahi Christchurch after the devastating Canterbury earthquakes.
In the artist’s words: “It’s an old cliché, but in every disaster there’s opportunity. Can memory be reconciled with anticipation? Can renewal bring a new sense of self and city by acknowledging the private, intimate and personal in two very different public spaces?”
As we move further from seismic upheaval in time, but remain in place, what questions does this work prompt for you?
More detail: www.scapepublicart.org.nz/