Antony Gormley Sculpture "Exposure"

Giant British expat sighted in Holland

A colossal sculpture in the Netherlands by British sculptor Antony Gormley has finally been completed. But is it really a representation of a homesick expat?

"Exposure", Gormley's largest and most complex sculpture to date, stands on a spit of land around one kilometre from the shore of Lelystad, a city in the Netherlands.

At 25 metres high, the squatting metal figure is five metres taller than than Gormley's most famous sculpture, the Angel of the North, and weighs around 60 tonnes.

Visitors standing next to the sculpture will only be at the level of the figure's feet.

Affectionately referred to by the Dutch as the "poepende man" or "pooping man", it is made out of 5,000 hand-cut metal elements, each of a different length, and fixed with 14,000 bolts. But to Telegraph Expat it looks less like "pooping man" than "homesick man" - a giant sculpture of a British expat staring wistfully out at sea and wondering if he'll ever get to return home.

The gargantuan figure has taken over five years to plan and develop. If the crouching man was standing upright, he would be over 100 metres tall.

Its components were manufactured by pylon manufacturer Had-Fab in Scotland, before being shipped out to the Netherlands to be installed.