Bersuara di Muara: What is Sculpture Good For? A Conversation with Antony Gormley and Lydia Yee

On April 12th, Muara Arts had the privilege of inviting Sir Antony Gormley to Kuala Lumpur for a conversation with Lydia Yee.

The discussion began with exploring the history of art, dating back to the Palaeolithic period.

Gormley reflects on his time in Indonesia and his visit to the Sulawesi caves, home to the earliest cave paintings. He also prepared a slide show that gave the audience a deeper understanding of the pieces and their impact on art.

Throughout the talk, Gormley shared his journey with art and the significant moments and ideas that shaped his career. Furthermore, he explained his thoughts and process on his monumental works, including the Angel of the North.

This event marks Muara Arts' first effort to bridge the gap between Southeast Asian and global artists to encourage the exchange of ideas and collaboration.

What made the event especially meaningful was that Gormley had requested that the audience primarily consist of students, which offered them a rare opportunity to learn and engage with a world-renowned sculptor.

Local figures like YB Hannah Yeoh also supported the event to fill the venue with energy and anticipation.

About Antony Gormley

Antony Gormley is widely acclaimed for his sculptures, installations and public artworks that investigate the relationship of the human body to space. His work has developed the potential opened up by sculpture since the 1960s through a critical engagement with both his own body and those of others in a way that confronts fundamental questions of where human beings stand in relation to nature and the cosmos. Gormley continually tries to identify the space of art as a place of becoming in which new behaviours, thoughts and feelings can arise. Gormley was awarded the Turner Prize in 1994, the South Bank Prize for Visual Art in 1999, the Bernhard Heiliger Award for Sculpture in 2007, the Obayashi Prize in 2012 and the Praemium Imperiale in 2013. In 1997 he was made an Officer of the British Empire, in 2014 was made a knight in the New Year’s Honours list and in 2025 was appointed Companion of Honour for his services to art in the King’s Birthday Honours list. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, an Honorary Doctor of the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Trinity and Jesus Colleges, Cambridge. Gormley has been a Royal Academician since 2003.

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'Muara Arts' first public engagement took the form of an art discussion between Sir Antony Gormley, the acclaimed British artist, and Lydia Yee, director of Muara Arts, in KL on April 12.'