Go On A Treasure Hunt Through Houghton Hall’s Verdant Acres

An expansive residence east of London, Houghton Hall was built in the 1720’s by Georgian architects Colen Campbell and James Gibbs for Great Britain’s first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. Still in use as a home—the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, a descendent of Walpole, and his family currently reside there—the estate also hosts public outdoor exhibitions on its grounds by world-renowned artists, present and past (Anish Kapoor, Henry Moore).

This summer, Antony Gormley joins the former category with Time Horizon, a multipart installation originally displayed in 2006 at the Parco Archeologico di Scolacium in Catanzaro, Italy. Here, its 100 cast-iron “bodyforms” sprawl across Houghton’s 300 verdant acres, encouraging a treasure-huntlike exploration and a reflection on space, nature, and humanity. The journey may take visitors to the Walled Garden, where two figures mix with a formal rose parterre and a glasshouse, or behind the main house, where several more have been placed on the lawn of the 13th-century St. Martin’s Church. Only one sculpture is indoors, out of sight from the white fallow deer known to dart past the others.