Stay, Cast iron sculpture series in central Christchurch, New Zealand.

Stay is a pair of identical cast iron human-form sculptures by Antony Gormley. One stands in the Avon River just upstream from Gloucester Street Bridge, fixed to a 6-metre pile screwed into the riverbed; the other stands in the Northern Quadrangle of the Christchurch Arts Centre. Both are life-sized and outdoors.

The works were created in 2015 and marked the first time this internationally known sculptor had placed a work in New Zealand. The installation came as part of a broader effort to bring new public art to Christchurch following the 2011 earthquake.

Stay was made for SCAPE 8, the public art exhibition held in Christchurch from 3 October to 15 November 2015. Gormley offered the two cast iron works at a discounted rate and asked that the price stay undisclosed; Christchurch City Council gave NZ$502,500 and the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority also funded the purchase and installation. The figures are identical, so a visitor can compare the one in the Avon with the one in the Arts Centre quadrangle.

The figures stand along the riverside path between Worcester Boulevard and Hereford Street and are easy to reach on foot from the city center. The site is open at any hour, and visiting at different times of day, such as morning or late afternoon, changes how the iron surfaces look.

Although both figures share exactly the same body posture, they can look completely different depending on the angle from which you approach them. This is partly due to the rough texture of cast iron, which reacts differently to light depending on the direction it comes from.