Antony Gormley in his own words, vertically and horizontally

Here we've got a YouTube interview with Antony Gormley. It comes via the marvel of a Nokia N95. Excuse the way it flies around every which way, that's this writer's novice camera technique.

But if you can get round that and if you find art and what drives it interesting then Gormley's words make for good listening. Fascinating in fact.

In this interview he starts off with a discussion and description of 'Filter', his addition to the collection at Manchester Art Gallery, acquired with the help of an £80,000 grant from those fabulous folk at the Art Fund. He also alludes to 'Another Place' on Crosby Beach, and discusses his fame, Britain's taste in culture, Greek sculpture and his up-coming new work 'One and Other' on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. And he gets shirty with the Art Gallery staff as well.

Some of his words may seem surprising, for instance he says: "My work continues to be mis-interpreted as some form of representational art. It's useless if you take it as that. It's an invitation for you to think of yourself being there, an invitation for you to think of those moments when you are, like it is, detached from the flow of everyday life. We're always doing something, fulfilling some kind of command, some kind of duty, some kind of work and this piece is trying to think of a human being as being not doing."

It's good stuff.

And if you've read our piece on Brick Man for Manchester (click here) then that discussion took place off camera.