Andy Goldsworthy: Ephemeral Artist

Andy Goldsworthy is British sculptor and photographer. He lives and works in Scotland, but has produced art all over the world including the North Pole. The majority of his works are site specific and ephemeral, or they last for a short period of time, and can only be appreciated through pictures.

Goldsworthy is an interesting artist because he deliberately makes his work ephemeral. He takes one picture after he is finished and then just lets his art fade away as nature wills.

"I enjoy the freedom of just using my hands and "found" tools--a sharp stone, the quill of a feather, thorns. I take the opportunities each day offers: if it is snowing, I work with snow, at leaf-fall it will be with leaves; a blown-over tree becomes a source of twigs and branches. I stop at a place or pick up a material because I feel that there is something to be discovered. Here is where I can learn. "

I think that is so cool! Going out on a hike and seeing some cool leaves or sticks and picking them up and then making art right where you are, snapping a photo and leaving it. I would be so tempted to try and preserve it somehow though. To glue the leaves down onto some paper or take the sticks with me and reassemble in a place where they can't be destroyed. It would be difficult to leave something to the elements.

Here are some of his ice sculptures. He takes pieces of ice or icicles and glues them together using water and sometimes his own saliva while it is still freezing outside.

Some of his pieces made out of leaves or flowers:

Here are some made of rocks and stones:

And finally some of sticks and logs:

As you can see, spirals, circles and spheres play a large role is Goldworthy's work. He says that he is especially influenced and inspired by rivers and the ocean.

From IM

Hence the title of the 2001 documentary film made about him: Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time. The film got a 7.9 on IMDb, I found it to be a little slow but very interesting and beautiful. The camera shots of his pieces are breathtaking and its really fascinating to watch him work for hours on his sculptures and to watch as nature takes back his art.

 Goldsworthy also has quite a few "coffee table" books for sale as well.

 Here is part 1 of the film:

You can find the other Nine parts on YouTube if you're interested; it is also available on Netflix instant (and via snailmail) for those of you lucky enough to have that at your disposal.

This video shows some excerpts of Goldsworthy working. The music is a little overwhelming but there's a really interesting part about 0:54 seconds in that shows a piece he constructed out of what looks like driftwood on the side of a river. The video also shows the river engulfing the piece and slowly demolishing it from the edges in.

 

The University of Cincinnati/Raymond Walters College has a few pages about Goldsworthy and in the section titled Philosophy on his page Goldworthy says:

"Movement, change, light growth and decay are the lifeblood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work. I need the shock of touch, the resistance of place, materials and weather, the earth as my source. I want to get under the surface. When I work with a leaf, rock, stick, it is not just that material itself, it is an opening into the processes of life within and around it. When I leave it, these processes continue....Process and decay are implicit."

The idea of making something and then just letting it exist and be demolished if that's what the weather dictates is new to me. Like I said earlier, I don't know if it is something that I think I could do, but Still really cool. To work hours and hours on something, sometimes in the freezing cold and then watch it fall apart when the sun comes up or the river swells would be so frustrating. Infuriating even. Which is why I respect the way that Goldsworthy works, because I could never do it. It's very Zen and I am not Zen. I wish I was Zen.