Flat out

After yesterday, another space that was heaving with people on its penultimate day: Antony Gormley's The Body Politic. He's gone all cuboid.

The enticing aerial view on the White Cube Gallery's website hadn't prepared me for how I'd react to these forms. I smiled at the many who were stretched out, relaxing, knees in the air or spreadeagled. But I had to look much more closely at the hunched and foetal shapes to work out what was happening, both physically and emotionally. Were they just asleep or were they in distress? My first extra is covering an ear and their face. Why? And what is going on for my second extra?

I was astounded that different arrangements of an identical set of blocks could create such a radical difference in my emotions. I really wanted to ask the people who installed them what that work felt like.