6 Times is a multi-part work by Antony Gormley which positions six life-size figures between the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the sea at Edinburgh’s Leith Docks.
Gormley is an internationally acclaimed British artist renowned for testing the body in space often using his own body as a particular example of the human condition that he can work on ‘from the inside’. Gormley has worked extensively across the world, from Stavanger in Norway to the western Australian desert. In the UK he is best known for the impressive Angel of the North at Gateshead, and for the 100 figures he has installed across Crosby Beach, near Liverpool.
6 Times is the first work from the National Galleries of Scotland’s collection to be physically shared with the city. The positioning of the figures across Edinburgh places contemporary art near to communities who may have had little opportunity to experience such work directly.
The first is buried chest-deep in the ground. The next four have been lowered into the Water of Leith as it winds its way through the city to the sea, and the final statue is at the end of an abandoned pier.
The figures in the river are so realistic, that police have already had calls from worried passers-by!!
The artist said the high-pressure density of modern urban life made it "vital to take the time and space to open up our minds to the elements". According to him, "We are all aware that we are coming to the point where there will be 10 billion human beings on this planet. The big question that I'm asking with all of these works is, where does the human project fit, in the scheme of things?".
