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ArticlesYou are in: Oxford > BBC Oxford > Articles > The 'Bill' Board!  The 'Bill' Board!BBC Oxford's 'Silver Fox' is never short of an opinion or two. Every Monday you can read all about Mr Heine's latest musings! WHAT THE DEVIL IS THIS? Oxford has a new sculpture. The 6’3” tall ‘Iron Man’ was unveiled on Sunday by the Lord Mayor on the roof of Blackwells Art Shop in Broad Street, owned by Exeter College. The artist is Antony Gormley, the man behind the gigantic Angel of the North in Gateshead overlooking the A-1. Does the addition to the Oxford skyline ‘work’? Does it bring with it something special? Does an already beautiful street become something ‘more’ with the new sculpture in place? I went to the unveiling and got these reactions from the group of people milling around Broad Street. “In this light it’s very grey with a copper, well endowed body that adds to the spires,” according to syndicated photographer Geoff Swaine. An Oxford professor suggested it was very ordinary: “This looks like an unwrapped mummy, a muddy bog body – the kind they’ve dug up in Germany after thousands of years. Is it a man? It’s got wide womanly hips. I think it is sort of androgynous; but on the other hand you can clearly see the penis. I suppose in a city with so much beautiful sculpture and public art it’s good to have something mediocre. If it were anywhere else people would say – so what – wouldn’t they?” Alissa Robinson, organiser of the Oxford Jazz Festival, said, “It looks very special and will add a lot to Broad Street. But today at the unveiling we felt like the little people down in the street while the big bosses were up on the roof. They were taking photos of us and we felt like we were just objects.” One of the things it did add to Broad Street was a huge green banner which hung down the side of the building directly under the statue and about five times as tall as the piece of art advertising the firm involved in lifting the Iron Man to the roof. Gerald Van Dam confessed: “I find the Gormley work dull… and having a deadening ‘production’ feel. I am tempted to suggest that the Antony Gormley figure be turned through 180 degrees. This would create gesture, modesty and mystery simultaneously.” Then of course there is always that niggling little question of ‘planning permission’. A spokesman for Exeter College was quite clear on this point. “The City Council can sort the planning out in their own time. We’ve given up speaking to them. As far as we’re concerned we have permission by delegated powers unless someone tells us otherwise… if we needed permission in the first place, which now seems doubtful. Anyway they can give it to us as retrospective permission in their own time. It’s a storm in a teacup.” What’s your opinion of this -- what does this sculpture add to Oxford? last updated: 16/02/2009 at 14:49 Have Your SayTed Scoutmaster. Be Prepared. Guilty Sir Stan Héctor Adolfo Saavedra Molina David. Gerald Walsh. David Richard Samuels Rolfe Monika from Oxford You are in: Oxford > BBC Oxford > Articles > The 'Bill' Board! |
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