LONDON

SITTING in his studio here, a converted warehouse north of King’s Cross, on a recent chilly morning, the artist Antony Gormley was talking about the sensation he was hoping to cause with “Event Horizon,” his first public art project in New York. It had been conceived as a shocker: from next Friday through Aug. 15, 31 naked men  or rather 31 slightly different sculptures of the same naked man, Mr. Gormley himself  will be perched on rooftops, standing on the grounds of Madison Square Park and dotting the sidewalks around the Flatiron district.

“When I did it in London”  in 2007 these same figures could be found on bridges, buildings and streets along the South Bank of the Thames River  “the reaction was quite remarkable,” he said. “People would stop. They would notice one; they would immediately stop somebody else on the street, pointing to the thing. Then gatherings of people would result, and quite quickly they would register their environment in a way they hadn’t before.”

In New York the project, not yet fully installed, has already caused a stir, but one Mr. Gormley could hardly have anticipated. Last week the New York City Police Department pre-emptively reassured the public that the figures were not potential jumpers on the verge of committing suicide. According to news reports the police had not received any emergency calls but promised to respond even if the location corresponded to an “Event Horizon” figure. Still, for some, the project recalled memories of victims of 9/11 leaping to their deaths.