China clay project for Angel artist

Antony Gormley will get the help of 300 local Chinese

Turner Prize winning artist Antony Gormley is planning his most ambitious project yet - creating a crowd of 120,000 clay figures.

Gormley, who is best known for his Angel of the North sculpture near Gateshead, is travelling to China to make a new version of his 'Field for the British Isles' work.

It featured 40,000 terracotta figures, each less than a foot high, densely packed together to make one huge installation.

London-born Gormley created the installation in 1993 with the help of 100 school children and their families in St Helen's, Merseyside.

Terracotta Warriors

Now Gormley plans to make one three times that size with the aid of 300 Chinese locals when the project gets under way in January.

It will remind people of China's famous Terracotta Warriors, thousands of life-size figures which were buried with the first Qin emperor in about 210BC.

Gormley said: I have already made Fields in different countries and the Asian Field will be the biggest so far. It will be a very intense process."

The 52-year-old artist plans to take the work on a tour of Asia after a period on display in China.

Other versions have already been created in North America, South America and Europe.

Gormley was speaking at the British Museum where Field for the British Isles is going on display in the Great Court, its first London showing since 1996.