EAST SUSSEX.- Due to its immense popularity, Antony Gormley’s Critical Mass, on the rooftop of the De La Warr Pavilion, will be extended a further month and will now remain open until 26th September.

With over 30,000 visitors to date, the significant impact of this exhibition on the Pavilion, Bexhill and the South East – particularly in terms of footfall and visitor spend - mean that further exhibitions are being planned for the Pavilion rooftop. Its success has demonstrated the importance and value of the investment from Rother District Council and Arts Council England, without which we would not be able to continue with this ambitious programming. In addition, with the support of Tourism South East we have been able to attract more people from London and the South East, demonstrating the impact of a wider marketing campaign and its effect upon cultural tourism.

Critical Mass, one of Gormley’s best known works, is an installation made up of 60 lifesize cast iron body forms which is on display on the roof of the De La Warr Pavilion.

The artist comments: “This is the return of the lost subject to the site of Modernism. It is great to have a chance to test this piece of sculpture against the clarity of Mendelsohn and Chemayeff’s English masterpiece. I am excited to see these dark forms in the elements against the sea and in direct light. It will be like a sky burial. How these masses act in space is very important. The challenge is to make the distance intimate, internal.”

Critical Mass is made up of five casts from 12 discrete moulds of Gormley’s body, developing from a low crouching position to squatting, sitting, kneeling and standing - an ascent of man ranging through the complex syntax of the body.