Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1239894
4 A single silent figure stands amid the liquid reflections of the crypt in Winchester Cathedral. Water from the River Itchen rises and falls gently around its legs but the lead sculpture is mesmerizing in its stillness. 'Sound II', installed by Antony Gormley in 1986, is a powerful object of contemplation offering a symbolic counterpoint to the surrounding 900-year old structure. It represents the human ingenuity that created this great cathedral and exemplifies a later comment by Gormley: 'When you ask "what is the point of art?" you could reformulate the question to "what is the point of human beings?"' i Such an existential question is answered within this sacred space, and viewers may consider how different this feels from contemplating Gormley's sculpture in an art gallery. The confidence to commission such installations of contemporary art for British cathedrals and churches, whether temporary or permanent, has grown in recent years. But not without challenge. Art critic Jonathan Jones writing in 2006 expressed his reservations about what he took to be a new wave of artists' interventions: 'Why does the Church want to add to its heritage in such arrogant ways? It seems to go with a quasi- Catholic belief in putting ritual and symbol back at the heart of Christianity… Shame on these arrogant deans and their chapters of fools.' ii Eight years later the same critic had shifted sufficiently to spend time with the new Bill Viola digital installation at St Paul's and declare: 'Martyrs fits beautifully into the cerebral ambience of St Paul's because it invites you to contemplate what it is to die for a cause, in much the same intensified yet sombre way one contemplates the mysteries of space and time while looking up into Wren's Newtonian dome.' iii "Art is, for me, the process of trying to wake up the soul." Bill Viola, 2014 Art in the Cathedral – a spark of inner life by Sandy Nairne CBE FSA Antony Gormley. SOUND II, 1986. Lead, fibreglass and water. Permanent installation, Winchester Cathedral. Collection of Winchester Cathedral. Photograph by Louis Bustamante. © Antony Gormley