All eyes on city with new art exhibition

All eyes will be on Sunderland when a major art installation is unveiled in the city in the summer. Which is apt as eyes play a big part in Sir Antony Gormley’s artwork Field of the British Isles … all 80,000 of them! This impressive and surreal work features no less than 40,000 small clay figures staring out at the visitors.

It’s pretty much as far as you can get from the work for which Sir Antony is most famous, The Angel of the North, but it is no less captivating.

Little wonder then that securing the installation is today described as a coup for the city.

As Alastair Robinson, director at the Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, tells us today: “We’re thrilled that such a major installation is coming to the city, and Fields for the British Isles will be the centrepiece of Sunderland Culture’s summer programme to attract audiences from Wearside and across the North East.

"I have to say Sunderland Culture’s Art Champions have chosen very wisely – this is a real coup for the city.”

It will be Sir Antony’s first Sunderland exhibition, with the project made possible thanks to an £18,000 grant, but the city will be hoping for an even bigger return on that investment. The last time the exhibition was staged in the region 25 years ago, more than 25,000 people flocked to see it.

What a boon for the city it would be if it were to eclipse those numbers. Here’s hoping the eyes have it!