22 April 2026 – One of the world’s greatest living artists and former winner of the Turner Prize, Sir Antony Gormley, joins Roundhouse CEO and Artistic Director Marcus Davey for the second episode of the Roundhouse’s podcast Making Space, which explores arts, creativity, society and our humanity.
In this episode, Sir Antony talks about the profound significance of clay—a material he believes grounds us and allows us to “think and to feel through making”. He reveals how his need to “make a mess” in his garden shed shaped his early work and how his celebrated works, like the sculpture that sits on top of the Roundhouse, are rooted in the place, community, and history where they stand.
On the sculpture, Antony talks about the Roundhouse “as a great big spaceship… A flying saucer that has landed at the bottom of Haverstock Hill. I was particularly interested in that view as you come down the hill, where I wanted to break the silhouette of the edge of the buildings…” His hope for the sculpture is to make people “recognise that here is a place where people are thinking about being human”
Sir Antony reflected on one of his most renowned sculptures, the Angel of the North, saying he couldn’t have made it without the history of the North East- the coal mining, engineering, and industrial legacy that made the region the “workshop of the world.” For him, a site is not just a point on a map but the living reality of its people, animals, and history. The sculpture, made from ship plate, echoes the hulls of ships built on the Tyne, turned “inside out.” Its power, he said, comes from being ‘ imaginatively rooted in that place’- physically, historically, and in human experience.
Speaking on the topic of education and his campaign to keep arts in the curriculum, Antony also talks about “the tragedy” of seeing education as solely “providing the tools for gainful employment” remarking that education should “link us with the thing that makes us feel alive, that makes us feel happy, that makes us feel purposeful, and fulfilled.”
Making Space is a six-episode series, featuring intimate conversations with leading artists connected to the Roundhouse. The next episode in Series 1 is with poet and author Cecilia Knapp, available to stream from 29 April. Series two will be announced in May.
The first episode of Making Space featuring Daniel Kaluuya is available to stream on all major podcast platforms. Both episodes are available to listen here.