AN army of artist Antony Gormley's plaster cast-offs has been consigned to the rubbish heap.

Passers-by have stopped to stare at the eerie sight of dozens of ghostly human figures standing silently in a deserted yard.

They are the unwanted remnants of Gormley's new showpice Domain Field, which opened on Saturday at the Baltic arts centre, Gateshead. The work consists of more than 250 human figures made of suspended steel pins.

Each one is moulded on a volunteer who agreed to be encased in plaster for the first part of the process.

Some people came back for their body casts, while others asked for their likenesses to be thrown out.

The discarded ones were stacked behind the Baltic, some standing, some lying down, waiting to be scrapped.

One visitor who spotted the casts said: "I got quite a shock when I saw them all standing there. They have almost as much impact as the finished artwork, they look really creepy standing around like that."

Occupying the entire art space of the Baltic's level four, Domain Field involved more than 250 volunteers from the North-East.

The moulds were used to construct individual sculptures by welding stainless steel bars inside each mould.

The work has been described as a sparkling myriad of stainless steel trajectories.

Mr Gormley, who created the Angel of the North sculpture, said that the exhibition had more than fulfilled his expectations.

Domain Field is on show until Monday, August 25.