Tate Liverpool And Crosby Beach

Tate Liverpool and Antony Gormley's 'Another Place'

The first place we visited when arriving at Liverpool was Crosby Beach, which doubles as Antony Gormley's extensive installation, 'Another Place'. The installation is made up of 100 cast iron figures that stretch across the length of the beach, and have been places out as far as the tide would allow, so that as the tide comes in, man of the sculptures vanish under the waves.

The piece toured several locations in Europe, the first location being Cuxhaven in Germany in 1997, before finding permanent residence at Crosby Beach in 2007 after much dispute.

We arrived at Crosby Beach at around 10:30, and had been granted a whole two hours to wander across the beach and take in the sculptures. It was a less than ideal time however, because within half an hour of being there, much of the beach was soon swallowed up by the tide. I did however, manage to see 3 of the 100 sculptures up close.

The sculptures were unusual to witness. Each one was numbered, and had limited detail because of them being a body cast. Where nipples might have been were huge, flat, rivet like circles.

Every one of the sculptures I saw was mottled with rust and algae.
From a distance, seeing all of the solid and un-moving silhouettes of people was a little unnerving, even more so was seeing the sculptures vanish into the water when the tide came in.

Out of the three I saw, I considered myself luck to come across one that was wearing a t-shirt.

I enjoyed my time there, and while I wasn't able to walk around for longer than I had, I was still able to see the installation from the path than ran alongside the beach.

I liked that these lumps of iron were forever changing when the tide came in, or when someone came and dressed them up. The idea that such a solid material could be changed was intriguing, even if it didn't inflict change upon the actual material itself, the installation was in such a place that the environment would be forever changing, and would never be the same twice.

The second place we visited was the Tate Liverpool, which I had been to years previously, but had less than fond memories of the place in general.
This time round with myself being a lot more mature and aware of the artwork I was going to see, as the last time I had visited was five years ago, I could definitely appreciate the artwork a lot more. As I have been researching this year, I had even studied an artist who's work I had taken interest in those five years ago.
As I walked around the galleries, I was shocked at how many pieces I saw within this small gallery who's creators I have been researching throughout the past year. Phyllida Barlow's paintings which I have never seen in person before hung on a wall in one of the spaces, directly across from Rachel Whiteread's 'Untitled (Air Bed II)' (1992) and Rebecca Warren's 'Versailles' (2006).

While most of the gallery spaces were off limits because new exhibitions were being installed, there was quite a lot to see in the three rooms we were able to go into. A lot of the things caught my attention, whereas the last time I went, I would have walked around the room and not paid attention.

The best part about going to this gallery was the fact that not two years ago I didn't like the idea of contemporary art, but now it is what my focus is on. I would have ignored and mocked pieces because it wasn't what I considered being art, nor what I had been taught was art throughout my time in secondary school art. This visit allowed me to see how close minded I was a few years back, and to see how far I had come as a more mature person and artist within those years.