The sculpture, Witness, cast in Iron, represents the empty chair of imprisoned writers worldwide. It was commissioned by English PEN to mark their 90th anniversary.
Gilian Slovo, English PEN's President "It will stand as tribute to, and reminder of, those writers who, because of censorship and tyranny, are not free to go to any library either in their countries or in ours", according to the Libraries intranet. Heavy stuff. A good reminder, although the sculpture looks a bit abandoned in the courtyard, and I don't think anyone really looked at it. I went inside, to ask for some info... one of the staff hadn't even seen it!
It sits in the main courtyard, along with some other of Gormley's sculptures, Planets, which were installed in 2002.
The British Library is one of those Brutalist (I think!) buildings you either love or hate. It's kind of a weird one. I can see it is trying to echo St. Pancras Hotel adjacent. It's funny how something so relevant at the time, is so dated 50 or so years later. Ah well. That's design for you. Internally the main entrance space is pretty good. No pics though! Library police.
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