Antony Gormley’s ‘Another Place‘ man-sized iron statues on Crosby Beach are moving on to another place soon.
Sefton council’s planning committee has voted not to keep them on health & safety grounds.
The statues were installed in June 2005 and are due to be packed up and shipped to the United States. The 100 life-sized sculptures on the beach at Crosby have attracted thousands of visitors but water sports fans and anglers wanted the statues removed from the beach saying that they cause a danger.
The current planning consent expires at the end of November but because of tide levels and daylight hours the statues would have to be removed before then.
I have mixed feelings about this. I really like them but I like the natural coastline too. The fact that lots more people are going to Crosby beach and being awestruck by the power of nature and the views etc. irritates me a bit. If a temporary work of art helps draw peoples attention to something then fine but to make it permanent smacks of theme parks and artificial beauty spots. The fact that they were temporary, that the local and visiting wildlife and community would only be disturbed for 18 months or so was an important part of the work for me.
On the other hand they’ve been keeping the anglers, surfers and other water ‘sports’ enthusiasts away so perhaps they should stay for that reason alone