Project 2: Place
ARTIST RESEARCH

Andy Goldsworthy

Goldsworthy’s sculptures are made on site, where the materials are collected. Leaves, moss, sticks, rocks, mud, and ice are examples of the materials he’s used, and no adhesives, bindings, or editing are used to make the sculptures appear as they do, unless they too are found on site. Twigs and thorns are used as tacks, clay and mud as glue. (Beyst) Recurring themes in his work are circles, spheres, cones, and winding, zigzagging lines. His work can be categorized as Earthworks, though, they “…are conceived in a very different spirit from the bulldozing Land Art of the American West”. (Lubow) Many of his works cross into performance, as they happen only in the moment they are created and perhaps for a few hours afterwards.

His intent is to play with nature and natural forces. In a statement for Rain sun snow hail mist calm, Goldsworthy said “I want an intimate physical involvement with the earth. I must touch. I take nothing out with me in the way of tools, glue or rope, preferring to explore the natural bonds and tensions that exist within the earth. The season and weather conditions determine to a large extent what I make.” (The Henry Moore Centre) His concern for time creates tension in his works, as the general audience sees only photographs taken before the pieces succumb to wind, tide, and other natural forces. In taking his materials from the earth and allowing the earth to take them back, Goldsworthy’s sculptures reflect natural phenomena of creation, death, and the beauty in their many forms.

In Woven branch circular arch from April 1986, Goldsworthy created a circle of negative space at the center of the woven branch arch. The piece interacts with its location through its material, found on site, Goldsworthy’s actions of making it, and in the space it takes up and the space it creates. The circles in Goldsworthy’s works are usually solid forms, a different color or texture on another. This sculpture is more of a ‘window’, and Goldsworthy’s decision to frame this space makes it significant. From whatever angle it is viewed at, the woods in which the piece was made is being emphasized. Similar pieces are Woven silver birch circle and Slate arch made over two days fourth attempt.

In a more opposite direction, Goldsworthy took objects from the sites and made them into spheres, which served as the focus of the place. The circles are reminiscent but not representative of eggs, pods, or seeds, something that grows or stays dormant, but is the product of its environment. Stone ball, Wales, May 1980, is photographed on a rock bed overlooking hills with numerous rocky outcroppings. As Goldsworthy collected the rocks its possible he was thinking of the large strips of rock they’d been chipped from. in Woven bracken ball, November 1985, he made two balls and photographed them in front of a field of bracken. Snowball made from last remaining patch of snow left in the shadow of a tall hedge takes the last of a certain element and compacts it, contrasting the changing seasons rather starkly. Snowball in summer took this concept further as he kept a snowball in a freezer until a showing in summer. (Crichton) The compressed form taken on by these materials act as a focus point for the landscapes, but they acknowledge the complexity they came from.

Beech leaves collected only the deepest orange from within the undergrowth protected from sunlight unfaded each leaf threaded to the next by its own stalk, though mostly self explanatory, leaves out the part about being partially floating on water. This piece is a great example of place-based art and of Goldsworthy’s serpentine forms, because it changes and moves with the flow of the water, mimicking the curves of a stream or river and existing still as the leaves that may individually have traveled a similar current.

Beyst, S. (2002, June). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://d-sites.net/english/goldsworthy.htm

Lubow, A. (2005, November). 35 who made a difference: Andy goldsworthy. Smithsonian Magazine, Retrieved from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/35-who-made-a-difference-andy-goldsworthy-114067437/

The Henry Moore Centre for the Study of Sculpture, Leeds City Art Gallery and Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, 1985), 4-5.

Crichton, U. (2001-2006). Andy goldsworthy digital catalogue, 1982_105a. Retrieved from http://www.goldsworthy.cc.gla.ac.uk/image/?id=ag_02271&t=1