Road Trip III - The Angel of the North - 28/07

No road trip from Yorkshire to Northumberland would be complete without a stop off at the Angel of the North, although in a funny kind of way TAOTN is at its most angelic whilst driving along the M1 – it crops up on the left, disappears, then appears on the right, then its on the left again, now straight in front of you.

At the site itself, what strikes you is the sheer size of the thing, and the engineering – deep grooves run along the outside, an external skeleton.




It seems to me that Gormley shares a lot of attributes with Goldsworthy – both are treated with suspicion by the art establishment, I suspect because of their popularity – they make public art and they make work that the public wants to see. And they demonstrate a scale and ambition lacking in many of the “art scene” artists.

TAOTN is the most popular piece of art in Britain. The Geordies of course love it; as we were to discover, they are very proud and passionate about and in this part of the world, and they have a piece of work worthy of their pride.