The Angel of the North is an ambitious continuation of Gormley’s artistic investigations into the relationship of space to the human body, through a critical engagement with his own. The vertical form of the Angel is based on the sculptor himself, who created the original mould by casting his own body in plaster. ‘I use my own body because that’s where I live. I challenge the traditional heroism of the male body in art, my interest is to work from the inside out.’ Significantly, the sculpture’s design draws upon industrial materials and processes, and its exoskeleton was created in collaboration with a group of engineers who utilised construction methods evolved from the Northeast’s long history of shipbuilding.