Antony Gormley: Making Space (2007 TV Movie) User Reviews

An unusually interesting art documentary

[shore-8 · 9/10 · 12 September 2007]

Beeban Kidron's "Making Space" is an unusually interesting art documentary. It not only manages to tell a story, but tells two interwoven stories, and does each with some pace and urgency.

The main story line of the film helps convey the process and pressure of putting together a major gallery show with new, large-scale works. Gormley isn't at all sure that the work will develop the results he's looking for in time for the show.

The second story line arises from a set of legal issues around another major work installed on a beach. It's an interesting story, and also helps convey the other pressures and complexities of an artist working in a large-scale public medium.

Kidron interjects some penetrating questions, and Gormley's responses and other comments add real insight. It's clear he takes sees art as very important to our society, and is thoughtful about his approach.

And there are even bits of humor, though you'll have to pay attention to pick up on the very dry and understated (British) way they are worked in. It's nice to see an art documentary that's serious without being humorless.

Perhaps it helps that the film is relatively brief - about 50 minutes. Other documentarists seem unable to leave anything on the cutting room floor. It helps to hone a film down to it's key elements. In fact, some may find the editing a bit spare if they are completely unfamiliar with Gormley's work. An interesting article entitled "All the world is his gallery" published in the Guardian may help fill in the gaps. A web search should turn it up.

A sense of the creative process and the realities of making that work on a fixed time line, along with Gormley's insights, make this a film worth seeing for those interested in art.

The man takes away from himself but the film is interesting

[bob the moo · 12 July 2007]

While Gormley prepares his "cloud in a box" work, a film crew follows him to understand his work and creative process. However, at the same time, a lobby group has successfully campaigned to have his sculptures removed from a beach on the grounds of health and safety.

I like modern art and indeed just last week spent a great day in MOMA in NYC (ohh, get you). But this isn't the same as me saying that I am knowledgeable on the subject or am anything other than a philistine when it comes to art. So for me personally this film manages to be everything to me in short bursts. At times it was fascinating because Gormley is passionate about his work and you can see that in how he talks about it. I could also see beauty in some of the works that I had not seen before, as well as those iconic ones that we all know (and perhaps love). However on the flip side he does also come over as incredible pretentious and full of his own self-importance – it is fair to say that this is not an unassuming man we're dealing with here. Yes he is passionate about his art, but he carries it like he is saving babies from burning buildings, dismissing those around with a palatable sense of arrogance.

This isn't constant though and when it is absent the film is very interesting – not only in listening to him but also in seeing the creative process. OK, we may not all see the cloud as art or see a value in his work but it is still interesting to see an artist create, and that is well done here. So worth a look then unless you know nothing about (or dislike) Gormley because, despite some of the issues I had with the man as he comes across here, it is still an interesting film and the type of thing I'd like to see Channel 4 do more of with all the cash they earn from Big Brother etc.