Size matters in contemporary art. From vast outdoor public sculptures such as the Angel of the North and Mark Wallinger’s soon to be realised White Horse to the many projects designed to enliven Tate Modern’s vast, bare Turbine Hall, the scale of art just keeps getting bigger.
‘Leviathan’, was inspired by the 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes’s idea of the state as an unwieldy, inchoate monster, he has advised against over-literal interpretations. First and foremost the piece is a play of structure and scale that alludes to the idea of the cathedral: the body as living, breathing sacred space, inside a structure that is literally cathedral-like. If the scale is overwhelming and megalomanic, there’s a humour to the piece that feels very human.
