Exposure (''Exposure'') is a steel frame sculpture on the Markerstrekdam near the Houtribsluizen in

Lelystad Lelystad () is a municipality and a city in the centre of the Netherlands, and it is the capital of the province of Flevoland. The city, built on reclaimed land, was founded in 1967 and was named after Cornelis Lely, who engineered the Afsluitdi ...

Netherlands by artist

Antony Gormley Sir Antony Mark David Gormley (born 30 August 1950) is a British sculptor. His works include the ''Angel of the North'', a public sculpture in Gateshead in the north of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998; ''Another Pla ...

. The work is also known as Crouching man (''Squatting man''), or popularly called ''the Shitting Man''.

Background

Since the 1970s, several landscape art works have been realized in the province of

Flevoland Flevoland () is the twelfth and youngest province of the Netherlands, established in 1986, when the southern and eastern Flevopolders, together with the Noordoostpolder, were merged into one provincial entity. It is in the centre of the countr ...

, examples of which are the ''Observatory (Robert Morris)'' (1971-1977) by Robert Morris, '' The Green Cathedral'' (1978-1996) by

Marinus Boezem Marinus Lambertus van den Boezem (born 28 January 1934) is a Dutch artist. He is known for his radical view of art and his works in public space. Together with Wim T. Schippers, Ger van Elk and Jan Dibbets, Boezem is seen as one of the main repres ...

and ''Polderland Garden of Love and Fire'' (1992-1997 ) by

Daniel Libeskind Daniel Libeskind (born May 12, 1946) is a Polish–American architect, artist, professor and set designer. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect. He is known for the design a ...

. In 2001, the province gave the municipality of Lelystad money to purchase a work of art. A few years later, the British artist Gormley was approached by the municipality to create the sixth landscape artwork in the province of Flevoland. The artist

(1950) is involved with art in which portrays a human figure. One of his best-known works is ''

Angel of the North The ''Angel of the North'' is a contemporary sculpture by Antony Gormley, located in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. Completed in 1998, it is believed to be the largest sculpture of an angel in the world and is viewed by an estimated 33 m ...

'', a steel figure with wings, which was unveiled in

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

in 1998.

Design

In creating Exposure Gormley was inspired for his design for Flevoland by the intended location near Lelystad: a breaking dam (spur of the

Markerwaarddijk The Zuiderzee Works ( nl, Zuiderzeewerken) is a man-made system of dams and dikes, land reclamation and water drainage work, in total the largest hydraulic engineering project undertaken by the Netherlands during the twentieth century. The proj ...

) in the middle of water, with a view of the

Markermeer The Markermeer () is a lake in the central Netherlands in between North Holland, Flevoland, and its smaller and larger neighbors, the IJmeer and IJsselmeer. A shallow lake at 3 to 5 m in depth, matching the reclaimed land to its west, ...

on one side and on the other side a view over the polder. He designed a crouching man, modeled after himself. The figure looks out toward the water. The vastness of the surroundings makes it difficult to estimate the scale of the high artwork from a distance. The male figure becomes more abstract as the visitor nears the sculpture. Writing about the sculpture,

Atlas Obscura ''Atlas Obscura'' is an American-based online magazine and travel company. It was founded in 2009 by author Joshua Foer and documentary filmmaker/author Dylan Thuras. It catalogs unusual and obscure travel destinations via user-generated content ...

said, "Exposure most definitely resembles a giant figure squatting to poop. This is so apparent that the locals have taken to calling the work, 'the shitting man'". The Dutch locals refer to it as "de poepende man" or "the shitting man". After the permit procedure, the construction of the foundation and construction of the artwork, which weighs about 60,000 kilos, could start in 2009. The work was manufactured by a Scottish firm, which specializes in making

Transmission tower A transmission tower, also known as an electricity pylon or simply a pylon in British English and as a hydro tower in Canadian English, is a tall structure, usually a steel lattice tower, used to support an overhead power line. In electrical gri ...

s. It was unveiled on 17 September 2010 by the artist, in collaboration with deputy Van Diessen alderman Fackeldey van Lelystad. Gormley sees his landscape sculptures as a still point in a moving world. Over time, however, ''Exposure'' will also respond to changes in the environment. The artist predicts that because of

Global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

and rising sea levels, the dam will have to be raised at some point, burying the work more and more.

References

Gallery

File:Lelystad - Houtribdijk - Exposure (of Crouching Man) 2010 by Antony Gormley - View South II.jpg File:Lelystad - Houtribdijk - Exposure (of Crouching Man) 2010 by Antony Gormley - View South I.jpg File:Lelystad - Houtribdijk - Exposure (of Crouching Man) 2010 by Antony Gormley - View North VII.jpg File:Lelystad - Houtribdijk - Exposure (of Crouching Man) 2010 by Antony Gormley - View NNW II.jpg File:Poepende man.jpg

External links

Video - The making of Exposure - Landart Antony Gormley
{{Antony Gormley 2010 sculptures Sculptures by Antony Gormley Outdoor sculptures Tourist attractions in the Netherlands Outdoor sculptures in the Netherlands Sculptures in Amsterdam 21st-century sculptures

Background

Design

See also

References

Gallery

External links