Planets

Although I thought I knew the British Library reasonably well, today I noticed something that I couldn't believe I had previously missed on its expansive outer plaza: Antony Gormley's sculptural installation, Planets. Eight large granite boulders with human figures wrapped around them are set around a circular seating area. It's not until you get a bit closer to them that their shapes really become apparent.

Gormley personally selected each of the boulders from a Swedish plain and then carved the forms based on friends and family.

Rather than wanting the sculptures to demonstrate how artists shape nature, Gormley "wanted to show . . . the dependency of bodies, our bodies, on the physical world and Mother Earth by carving these forms on to the rock itself."