Places to Be I, II, & III

ANTONY GORMLEY

Places to Be

Three lead-coated life-size individuals in three different poses make up the artwork Places to Be by Antony Gormley. Gormley’s sculptures look at how the human body and space interact.

Antony Gormley requires no introduction. He was the creator of Angel of the North (Figure 4 below), which can be found in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear (NE9 7TY). The sculpture is thought to be the world’s largest angel sculpture and is visited by an estimated 90,000 every day or 33 million people each year¹.

Places to Be
Sculpture #1 on the roof of 6 Queen St, Peterborough, PE1 1PA

Sculpture #2 on the roof of 6A Cathedral Square, Peterborough, PE1 1XH

Sculpture #3 on the roof of 48 Queensgate Centre, Peterborough, PE1 1NH.

All of the above locations are in the city centre and are close to each other. Gormley draws attention to voids that are often neglected or ignored by placing sculptures in them. Gormley creates life-size sculptures using casts of his own body, and they have become more and more abstract with time². According the Gormley, “Art is a gift, it’s a calling, it’s a vocation—it’s not a career. I’m so grateful I’ve been allowed to do the thing I love and people have helped me do that as a gift I’ve got a bit of talent—I’m not particularly talented; I’ve kind of kept at it for better or for worse.”³

Places to Be was acquired by Peterborough Development Corporation in 1984, the care of which was later transferred to Peterborough Sculpture Trust and then Vivacity in 2015. The work was sited at Monkstone House Offices (now Greenwoods Solicitors) and was later moved to Thorpe Meadows in 1988. The figures were vandalised in 2006, and removed in 2007. Vivacity, the management company at that time, worked with Antony Gormley to restore the pieces and eventually moved them to the three locations above^4.

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