Sculpture
Quantum Cloud
Antony Gormley ↗A series of steel sculptures (1999–2000) in which a human figure seems to condense out of, or dissolve into, a cloud of linear steel elements. The monumental 30-metre Quantum Cloud beside The O2 in Greenwich is the best known. The smaller numbered works are held by museums including SFMOMA, the Denver Art Museum, the Nasher Sculpture Center and Kunsthalle Bremen.
Details
Technique
Each work is built from short straight steel sections joined into tetrahedral units. A computer random-walk algorithm places the units, starting from points on the surface of an enlarged scan of Gormley’s own body. The figure remains as a dense "residual outline" at the centre. The concept comes from quantum physicist Basil Hiley’s ideas of pre-space as a structure beneath space-time and matter.
Works in this Collection (28)
Quantum Cloud
1999 · Galvanised steel sections (tetrahedral units)
Greenwich Peninsula (site-specific commission)
Quantum Cloud VIII
1999 · Steel
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Quantum Cloud XV
2000 · Stainless steel
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Quantum Cloud XIX
2000 · Stainless steel bar
Denver Art Museum
Quantum Cloud XXXIII
2000 · Stainless steel
Denver Art Museum
Quantum Cloud I
1999 · Mild steel bar (4 × 4 × 70 mm)
Quantum Cloud V
1999 · Mild steel bar (4 mm square section)
SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen
Quantum Cloud IX
1999 · Mild steel bar (4 mm square section)
Kunsthalle Bremen
Quantum Cloud X
1999 · Galvanised mild steel (6 mm square section, figure)
Quantum Cloud XI
2000 · Stainless steel bar (6 mm square section)
Quantum Cloud XII (Crouching Suspension)
1999 · Mild steel bar (4 mm square section)
Quantum Cloud XIII
2000 · Stainless steel bar (4.76 mm square section)
Quantum Cloud XVI
2000 · Stainless steel bar (4.76 mm square section)
Quantum Cloud XX (Tornado)
2000 · Stainless steel bar (6 mm square section)
Nasher Sculpture Center
Quantum Cloud XXI
2000 · Stainless steel bar (4.76 mm square section)
Quantum Cloud XXII
2000 · Stainless steel bar (4.76 mm square section)
Quantum Cloud XXIII
2000 · Stainless steel bar (4.76 mm square section)
Koriyama Museum
Quantum Cloud XXIV
2000 · Stainless steel bar (6 mm square section)
Quantum Cloud XXV
2000 · Galvanised mild steel (6 mm square section), mild steel and wood
Quantum Cloud XXVI (Sleeping Figure)
2000 · Mild steel bar (4 mm square section)
Quantum Cloud XXVII
2000 · Stainless steel bar (6 mm square section)
Quantum Cloud XXVIII
2000 · Stainless steel bar (6 mm square section)
Quantum Cloud XXIX
2000 · Stainless steel bar (6 mm square section)
Quantum Cloud XXXI
2000 · Stainless steel bar (6 mm square section)
Quantum Cloud XXXIV
2000 · Stainless steel bar (4.76 mm square section)
Quantum Cloud XXXVI
2002 · Stainless steel bar (6 mm square section)
Quantum Cloud XXXVIII (Baby)
2007 · Stainless steel bar (2 mm square section)
Quantum Cloud XXXIX (Maria)
2007 · Stainless steel bar (2 mm square section)