Completed in 1998, it is a steel sculpture of an angel, tall, with wings measuring across. The wings are angled 3.5 degrees forward to create, according to Gormley, "a sense of embrace". The angel, like much of Gormley's other work, is based on a cast of his own body. It is Britain's largest sculpture, and is said to be the largest angel sculpture in the world. The artwork stands on a hill at Low Eighton in Lamesley parish, overlooking the A1 and A167 roads and the East Coast Main Line rail route, south of the site of Team Colliery. It is referred to locally as "The Felling Flasher"
Concept
According to Gormley, the significance of an angel was three-fold: firstly, to signify that beneath the site of its construction, coal miners worked for two centuries; secondly, to grasp the transition from an industrial to an information age; and thirdly, to serve as a focus for our evolving hopes and fears.
Construction
Work began on the project in 1994. Gateshead Council secured funding of £800,000 - £584,000 from the Arts Council England, £150,000 from the European Regional Development Fund, £45,000 from Northern Arts, plus private sponsorship. The Angel was installed on 15 February 1998. Due to its exposed location, the sculpture was built to withstand winds of over 100 mph. Thus, foundations containing of concrete anchor the sculpture to rock below. The sculpture was built at Hartlepool Steel Fabrications Ltd using COR-TEN weather-resistant steel. It was made in three parts—with the body weighing and two wings weighing each—then brought to its site by road. The components were transported in convoy—the body on a 48-wheel trailer—from their construction site in Hartlepool, up the A19 road to the installation site away; the nighttime journey took five hours and attracted large crowds. The plaque beside the angel reads "The hill top site is important and has the feeling of being a megalithic mound. "When you think of the mining that was done underneath the site, there is a poetic resonance. Men worked beneath the surfacein the dark.... It is important to me that the Angel is rooted in the ground—the complete antithesis of what an angel is, floating about in the ether. It has an air of mystery. You make things because they cannot be said." This writing pays homage to the central idea of the statue to represent the past, present, and the changing times of the nation.
Maquettes
Several maquettes were produced during the development stage of the project. A life-size model from which the sculpture was created was sold at auction for £2.28 million in July 2008. An additional bronzemaquette used in fundraising in the 1990s, owned by Gateshead Council, was valued at £1 million on the BBC show Antiques Roadshow on 16 November 2008—the most valuable item ever appraised on the programme. In 2011 German fashion designerWolfgang Joop sold his life-size maquette at an auction at Christie's in London for £3.4 million to an anonymous bidder. Another maquette was donated to the National Gallery of Australia in 2009, and stands in its Sculpture Garden.
Other projects
Inspired by the Angel of the North, several similar projects have been proposed. The Angel of the South title has been given by some to the Willow Man, which sits to the side of the M5 in Somerset, while the White Horse at Ebbsfleet has been proposed for Ebbsfleet Valley, Kent. The sculpture Brick Man was proposed for the Holbeck area of Leeds.
Controversies
Siting
Comments were made about potential for car accidents resulting from the statue's position near the A1 motorway. Trees have now been allowed to grow up to hide the sculpture from the road at the point where it passes closest. There were also concerns over interference to TV reception.
Design
The Gateshead Post drew comparisons between the Angel and a 1930s Nazi statue.
Pre-construction opposition
The Angel aroused some controversy in British newspapers, at first, including a "Gateshead stop the statue" campaign, Initially Gormley by his own account had been "snooty" towards the project. When Gateshead Council originally invited Gormley to present his ideas, he scoffed at the opportunity saying that he "did not make motorway art". Liberal Democrat councillor Jonathan Wallace, who opposed constructing the statue missed the decisive council vote having taken a new job. Despite any early opposition The Angel is now considered to be a landmark for North East England. The Angel has been listed by Icons.org as an "Icon of England". The Guardian National newspaper also claimed that the sculpture is also humorously known by some local people as the "Gateshead Flasher", because of its location and appearance, though no more-local reference to this term has been found.
On 7 May 2014 the supermarket Morrisons projected the image of a large baguette onto the Angel, an act Gormley called "shocking and stupid". The company issued a statement saying, "We're sorry if you thought we got carried away by shining a baguette on the Angel of the North and apologise unreservedly to those to whom we have caused offence".
In 2011 Gateshead Council refused Tourism Ireland permission to illuminate the Angel for St Patrick's day.
Cultural references
Vera
The long-running television detective showVera uses a brief view of Angel of the North as an establishing shot to help establish the setting of the series in Northumberland, the northernmost county of England.
Look North
The statue featured in the BBC Look North intro from 2005 to 2019.
