A Northern Angel & A Northern Boy
“People are always asking, why an angel?
The only response I can give is that no-one has ever seen one and we need to keep imagining them.
The angel has three functions - firstly a historic one to remind us that below this site coal miners worked in the dark for two hundred years, secondly to grasp hold of the future, expressing our transition from the industrial to the information age, and lastly to be a focus for our hopes and fears - a sculpture is an evolving thing.”
Anthony Gormley said of the Angel
“The hilltop site is important and has the feeling of being a megalithic mound. When you think of the mining that was done underneath the site, there is a poetic resonance. Men worked beneath the surface in the dark. Now in the light, there is a celebration of this industry.
The face will not have individual features. The effect of the piece is in the alertness, the awareness of space and the gesture of the wings - they are not flat, they’re about 3.5 degrees forward and give a sense of embrace.
The most important thing is, that this is a collaborative venture. We are evolving a collective work from the firms of the North East and the best engineers in the world.”
