Field for the British Isles, 1999

firstsite at the Minories was one of the chosen locations for a national tour in 1999 of the British Turner Prize-winning sculptor Antony Gormley’s startling installation, Field for the British Isles.

Gormley, who uses the human form to explore man's existence in and relation to the world, chose to install the iconic sculpture of thousands of unglazed clay figures inside a vast disused department store in Colchester town centre.

Ironically, that same structure will soon be demolished to form part of the backdrop to the new firstsite building in Colchester’s developing Cultural Quarter.

'Unlimited hordes'

The sculpture consisted of some 35,000 terracotta figures, each between 8cm and 26cm high, nestled closely together, and looking towards the viewer.

The crowd of miniature figures formed a dense carpet which appeared to continue into infinity.

The sensation of Field was one of a tide of humanity, an endless mass that had become temporarily limited by the architecture of the place where it was installed, but which could easily extend further than we could see.

In 1994 Antony Gormley was awarded the Turner Prize for Field for the British Isles. He is perhaps best-known for his large outdoor sculpture Angel of the North.