Summary of Andy Goldsworthy
A sculptor and photographer, Andy Goldsworthy not only works with nature, but in nature. Rather than building monumental constructions on or out of the land, Goldsworthy works almost telepathically with nature, rearranging its natural forms in such a way as to enhance rather than detract from their beauty. Often quite small in scale, his poetic site-specific pieces are made from ephemeral or organic materials - dandelion flowers lain in a ring or icicles perched on a rock - and then documented through gorgeous color photographs. Goldsworthy views the inevitable death and decay in his work as part of the life cycle - he takes an environmentalist's approach, lending an utmost respect toward the natural world as most of his pieces gradually fade away into the land from which they've come.
Accomplishments
- The natural world (and all its myriad forms) is the artist's primary material. As a sculptor working with nature, Goldsworthy harnesses its limitations to gain a deeper understanding of it. His approach not only makes nature the co-author of his work, but emphasizes that human beings are not separate from nature, but are rather an inexorable part of it.
- Goldsworthy's work draws upon a Minimalist aesthetic that derives from seeing the poetic in the everyday. Stones, rocks, branches, twigs, leaves and ice are arranged carefully and patiently, making use of various repeated motifs such as snaking lines, spirals, circles and holes.
- Goldsworthy is a very hands-on sculptor for whom a large point of the work resides in the process of making it. "Learning and understanding through touch and making is a simple but deeply important reason for doing my work." His enthusiasm and wonder express themselves through the making, as he remarked, "each work is a discovery."
- The passage of time and its eventual dissolution of materiality is central to Goldsworthy's work. In focusing on ephemerality, Goldsworthy rejects the idea of art as a commodity to be exhibited and sold. Furthermore, he sees the fact that he uses temporal objects as a reflection of the ever-changing world we live in and the need to understand that nothing is eternal.
- Goldsworthy is interested in the social history of the land on which he is working and that includes its human population. He feels it is important to acknowledge a site's rich history and the various connections that people have in relationship with the land. As he has said, "People also leave presence in a place even when they are no longer there."
Biography of Andy Goldsworthy
"My home... is the origin of many of my ideas and feelings towards the land," Andy Goldsworthy said. He built Millenium Cairn (2000) on a little hill outside his village because, because he said, it had "a sense of guarding the road."
