Students at Imperial College London are seeking to block the installation of an Antony Gormley statue on campus which they describe as “phallic”.
Imperial College Union has raised concerns about Gormley’s six-metre tall sculpture ALERT, saying it may “hurt the image and reputation of the college”, because the legs of the figure may be interpreted as an erect penis.
The sculpture made of stacked cantilevered steel blocks is meant to resemble a squatting human figure and is set to be installed this summer in the university’s Dangoor Plaza.
Gormley described the sculpture as a figure “balancing on the balls of the feet while squatting on its haunches and surveying the world around it the attitude of this sculpture is alive, alert and awake”, in a statement about the statue on the university’s website.
The motion by the union also said that the name could also be understood as referring to the sculpture’s phallus as “being erect”.
It added that while there is nothing “inherently wrong” with phallic imagery in art, the statue could be considered inappropriate for a grand display.
The union raised concerns that the phallic interpretation may be seen as “exclusionary”, due to the gender ratio of students and staff at the university.
Official university statistics show that 41.8% of the full-time students at Imperial College were female in the 2020-2021 academic year.
The Gormley sculpture was gifted by the university’s alumnus Brahmal Vasudevan, founder and chief executive of private equity firm, Creador, and his wife Shanthi Kandiah.
Mr Vasudevan described the Gormley sculpture as “world class” and “iconic”, on the university’s website.
Gormley is known for previous works including the Angel of the North in Gateshead, Another Place on Crosby Beach in Liverpool and the large-scale public sculpture installation Event Horizon, first displayed in London and later in in New York, downtown Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
