Prince William and Kate's Norfolk neighbours Lord Cholmondeley and his wife ... trends now
The neighbours of the Prince and Princess of Wales have installed 100 life-size cast-iron statues resembling naked people on the grounds of their stately home.
The strange figures have recently been spotted on the lawns of the Marquess and Marchioness of Cholmondeley's Houghton Hall.
The 6ft-tall figures - complete with metal genitals on display - have been embedded into the ground as part of Angel of the North artist Sir Antony Gormley's £22 a ticket exhibition Time Horizon.
'We have this wonderful park and it is ideal for sculpture,' explains Lord Cholmondeley, 63, aka film-maker David Rocksavage.
Similar statues, said to resemble Sir Antony's own naked body, have been put on display on Liverpool's Crosby Beach. They had to be dug up from the sand in 2021 to have the foundations replaced after strong currents and shifting sands led to the statues tilting.
The neighbours of the Prince and Princess of Wales have installed 100 life-size cast-iron statues resembling naked people on the grounds of their stately home
They 6ft-tall figures with genitals on display have been embedded into the ground as part of Angel of the North artist Sir Antony Gormley's £22 a ticket exhibition Time Horizon
Lord Cholmondeley, whose wife, Rose, turned 40 recently, admitted to feeling 'slightly apprehensive' about the sculptures — some of which are partially buried — that make up the work.
The sculptures, each weighing 620kgs, are spread across 300 acres of land on the estate.
They are all installed at the same datum level - some are buried and others elevated on concrete columns.
Gormley said his ambition for the show 'is that people should roam far and wide'.
'Art has recently privileged the object rather than the experience that objects can initiate,' he said.
'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
