Antony Gormley’s Time Horizon exhibition of 100 life-size sculptures will open at Houghton Hall near King’s Lynn

A large sculpture exhibition is being shown in the UK for the first time and is coming to a Norfolk venue.

Time Horizon, one of Antony Gormley’s most spectacular large-scale installations, will be shown at Houghton Hall from April 21–October 31.

Featuring 100 life-size sculptures, the works are distributed across 300 acres of the park, the furthest away being approximately 1.5 miles on West Avenue.

The cast-iron sculptures, each weighing 620kg and standing at an average of 191cm tall, are installed at the same datum level to create a single horizontal plane across the landscape.

Some works are buried, allowing only a part of the head to be visible, while others are buried to the chest or knees according to the topography.

Only occasionally do they stand on the existing surface.

Around a quarter of the works are placed on concrete columns that vary from a few centimetres high to rising four meters off the ground.

Antony Gormley is considered by many to be one of the most important artists of his generation and is widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space.

His work has been exhibited throughout the UK and internationally.

Antony said: “My ambition for this show is that people should roam far and wide.

“Art has recently privileged the object rather than the experience that objects can initiate.

“Time Horizon is not a picture, it is a field and you are in it. The work puts the experience of the subject/visitor/protagonist on an equal footing with all material presences, organic and inorganic.

“The quality of the light, the time of the year, the state of the weather and the condition of your mind, body and soul are all implicated in the field, as is all the evidence within it of human activity already accomplished as well as the plethora of life forms that surround the hall.”

Lord Cholmondeley, owner of Houghton Hall, said: “It has been an extraordinary experience witnessing the installation of 100 life-size sculptures in the historic landscape surrounding the house.

“It is a great privilege to have the opportunity to show this large-scale work by Antony Gormley for the first time in the UK.

“We hope visitors will enjoy exploring Houghton and the interesting dynamic between Time Horizon and our exhibition of Magdalene Odundo's ceramic and glass work, which will open in May.”