A stretch of Merseyside coastline seems like an unlikely location for an internationally acclaimed work of art but since 2005 Crosby beach, just North of Liverpool, has been home to Antony Gormley’s sculpture ‘Another Place’.<br><br>The installation was originally conceived as an itinerant work, having previously been located at coastal settings in Germany, Norway and Belgium. Gormley felt that the Crosby setting was particularly apt, and after much controversy, debate and campaigning the local Council granted it permanent residency.<br><br>Much of Gormley’s work involves the human form. This work itself was created from 17 moulds of the artist’s own body, each standing vertically with slight variations in the intensity of posture. From these, 100 figures were cast in iron and distributed alongside three kilometres of beach, reaching a kilometre down and into the water. Each statue faces resolutely out to sea. <br><br>The figures are set at varying heights; some semi-submerged in the sand, others standing tall on its surface. Variations in tide, weather conditions and activity, both upon the beach and the busy Mersey channel, mean that the sculpture is always changing: never to be viewed in the same way twice. The passage of time and exposure to the elements weathers the statues, changing their appearance and altering the experience of the viewer.<br><br>Gormley’s work examines the spaces within which bodies reside<sup>1</sup>. The everyday ordinariness of a Merseyside beach and its inhabitants, therefore, provides the perfect backdrop for his exploration of this spatial theme.<br>