Renowned sculptor Sir Antony Gormley’s “Time Horizon” transforms Houghton Hall’s historic landscape

Houghton Hall, one of Great Britain’s most iconic and stately homes, has fascinated visitors for decades with its grand Palladian architecture and rich history. But now, the Norfolk estate has a new draw—a striking art installation by the renowned sculptor Sir Antony Gormley.

Gormley’s latest exhibition, titled “Time Horizon,” is a collection of 100 life-sized iron sculptures spread across 300 acres.

“I want the work to puncture the apparent surface of things and make you think about what underlies everything,” said Gormley, speaking to CBS at White Cube gallery in New York.

These figures are positioned at various depths throughout the landscape, with some buried so deep that only the tops of their heads are visible. It took four-and-a-half months to install the exhibition. 

The sculptures are cast in Gormley’s own image. To create the molding, the artist was covered in plaster, and it took an hour to be cut out.

“I try to forget all that,” Gormley said with a laugh.

Gormley said he wanted to offer visitors an installation that was both thought-provoking and deeply personal.

“We’re so used to art being a reproduction of the world we already know. I want this to be, in a way, a place where you are making the picture,” said Gormley.

Gormley is world-renowned for his sculptures, including the “Angel of the North,” which looms over a British highway and is seen by some 33 million travelers annually. His iron men have also stood sentry on a beach near Liverpool and on the streets and buildings of New York.

The seventh Marquess of Cholmondeley, the current owner of Houghton Hall, commissioned Gormley’s work and allowed one of the iron figures to be partially buried in what the artist calls “essentially his front room.”

Gormley’s inspiration for “Time Horizon” dates back to a trip he made to the United States as a graduate student in 1979, when he visited Walter De Maria’s “Lightning Field” in New Mexico. The experience left a lasting impression on Gormley, who described it as a “revelation” and a “revolution in how art might work.”

“Time Horizon,” Gormley says, is not merely an art piece but a field in which visitors are fully immersed. Gormley has said the installation changes with the quality of light, the time of year, and the state of mind of those who experience it.

“I would like the work to be a kind of catalyst for the reinforcing of first-hand experience. The sense that, somehow, you know, there’s a miracle about being alive,” he said. 

Visitors to Houghton Hall are invited to explore the grounds and engage with the installation until Oct. 31.