College Unveils Public Art Collaboration Between Antony Gormley and Simon Armitage

Trinity is pleased to have unveiled a new work by acclaimed sculptor Antony Gormley made in collaboration with UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage. 

The College’s iconic Stuart Gates stand at the end of Trinity’s lawns, revealing a view of Trinity’s lawns, backed by Sir Christopher Wren’s Garden Quadrangle. Standing next to these gates is a new rusted cast iron door designed by Gormley, featuring a poem by Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Simon Armitage.

The Stuart Gates are located on busy Parks Road, and the idea of an artwork that is both functional as an access point to the college, and an object of contemplation, was key to the development of the project. Antony Gormley says: ‘The idea of the threshold and the function of doors have been interests of mine for a long time; I want the physical engagement of approaching the door and going through it to be in balance with the door itself where word and material come together. Simon echoed the feelings I had about the door as the arbiter of inner and outer in a poem that gives the door a voice or a mind.’

The door itself will register the passage of time as it continues to rust, its patina evolving as the seasons change, while the touch of people passing through the door will polish the surface naturally. A series of raised concentric rings radiate out from the central silhouetted aperture, inviting passers-by to consider where things – the body, time, space – begin and end.

Gormley says of its design: ‘The hole in the door is in the form of a walking man. The joy of the silhouette is that you don’t know whether the figure is walking away or towards you. This collaboration is about integrating words into an object. The object has a poetic and metaphoric function as well as a practical one. It will hopefully generate thought and feeling both for the passer-by and the regular user.’ 

A poem by UK Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, ‘Hinge’, appears in relief on the surface of the cast door; the artist and poet collaborated closely on the nature of the door, the meaning of its design and the fabrication process. The poem brings attention to the two-way operation of the door, as both entrance and exit, emphasising the world as a place to be felt and sensed and imagined. 

Armitage notes: ‘In all, the poem is advocating a dialogue and a coming and going between formal and informal learning, between the heart and the head, and the need for a balance between the two approaches… Antony’s design puts the human form and also humanity at the centre of the door and at the centre of the poem. For me, in relation to the poem, it says something about being able to look inside ourselves and also beyond ourselves. And in what is essentially a man-made barrier it actually creates a man-made aperture in the door, a deliberate and crafted hole through which dreams of many different kinds might pass, a key hole for thoughts and feelings, travelling in both directions.’

The gate was unveiled in March 2025 as part of the completion of a major development of the College’s Broad Street Estate, which embraced the new Levine Building, refurbishment of the Chapel, Library and Dining Hall and a step change in making the communal areas of the College more accessible.

Trinity’s President, Dame Hilary Boulding, says of the project: ‘We are thrilled that two such distinctive and admired artists accepted the commission to create a functional piece of public art.  We set out to create something to enhance the public realm and to provide something intriguing and thought-provoking, next to one of the most photographed views in Oxford. The door is very much part of Trinity’s desire to engage with the City’s wider community and we hope that it will provide an additional point of interest for pedestrians in the city.’

The unveiling of the door coincided with a special ‘In Conversation’ event on 12 March, where the two artists gave a public talk entitled ‘Bridging disciplines in public art,’ in which they discussed themes that cross the creative disciplines and their recent collaborations, including Trinity’s door project.

A Door for the Stuart Gates, 2021, Cast iron, a collaboration between Antony Gormley and Simon Armitage. Installation view, Trinity College, Oxford, 2025, Photo © Theo Christelis