Found, The Foundling Museum, London
Curated by Cornelia Parker, this exhibition will include the work of sixty artists who will respond to the theme of ‘found’, reflecting on the Museum’s heritage. Antony Gormley’s Iron Baby (1999) will be included, alongside the work of twenty fellow Royal Academicians.
’In the context of the Foundling Museum exhibition, this tiny body describes the tragedy of separation that besets the abandoned child. This precious, unique life is deserted: a position more associated with death.
The work has become known as the Iron Baby and in its darkness and density suggests a small bomb. The material is iron (concentrated earth), the same as the core of our planet. Here, this tiny bit of matter in human form attempts to make us aware of our precarious position in relation to our planetary future. It is the gesture of a body closed in on itself, needy of comfort, shelter, sustenance and peace.’
Antony Gormley
Photograph: Iron Baby, 1999. Photograph by Stephen White.