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Tom Lubbock: Gormley’s One and Other will turn out to be many things 

Jump to full article: The Independent (uk), 2009-07-06
Author: Tom Lubbock

Intro:

And then it starts, and the real live humans get involved, with both scheduled and unscheduled contributions. The concept in all its purity immediately collapses. Of course Antony Gormley's One and Other had let itself for almost anything. Nobody could really complain when, through smart timing and inattention from security staff, the launch was convincingly hijacked.

It looked like somebody was doing some quick last minute repairs. How easily the man got himself helped up by a mate, via the safety net, onto to the plinth, to stand there, iron faced, with his placade promoting its strange cause - to ban actors from smoking - while the Mayor of London and the artist himself made their opening speeches, trying to sound as if they didn't really mind about this piece of improvisation. . . .

The cherry-picker approaches with the first one, a smiling woman in her thirties. Invited to "do the gentlemanly thing", the iron faced man concedes, gets onto the lift and iis taken down. The woman takes her place, and we see her business at once. She's doing it for charity. She stands with balloons and a lollipop sign

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