Andy Goldsworthy River and Tides

Most of us (in Australia) have at one time or another appreciated the aesthetic beauty of making a little boat out of a leaf and watching it float away down a stream. Additionally, we have appreciated the feel of sand between our toes and the ephemeral reflection that comes from seeing our footprints erased by the waves. In his art, Andy Goldsworthy has made a career out of engaging in more complex examples of such pastimes and subsequently photographing them in order to share with others.

Andy has stated that his goal is to understand nature by participating in it as intimately as he can. Using twigs, leaves, stones, snow, ice, reeds and thorns, he assembles some kind of sculptural installations that will in turn be shaped by the changing aspects of the elements. Not only does the installation reveal something about the elements, it also becomes connected to them as part of a greater whole. In his own words,

"Looking, touching, material, place and form are all inseparable from the resulting work. It is difficult to say where one stops and another begins. The energy and space around a material are as important as the energy and space within. The weather--rain, sun, snow, hail, mist, calm--is that external space made visible. When I touch a rock, I am touching and working the space around it. It is not independent of its surroundings, and the way it sits tells how it came to be there."

As well as being fond of the visual aspect of his work, Goldsworthy is particularly fond of the tactile sense of touch. Consequently, as well as seeing the changes in the environment around him, making his work also allows him to experience it. In his own words;

"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. Nature is in a state of change and that change is the key to understanding. I want my art to be sensitive and alert to changes in material, season and weather. Each work grows, stays, decays. Process and decay are implicit. Transience in my work reflects what I find in nature."

Although Goldsworthy regards his work as transient and ephemeral, perhaps such terms are incorrect. The German word for art comes from the word to exhibit, and if the German definition is accepted, Goldworthy's work only becomes art when shared with others. Because he typically shares with us via the medium of photography, his art is no more ephemeral than a painting. Furthermore, while Goldsworthy experiences the coldness of melting ice over his fingers as his assembles an ice sculpture in the morning, none of these things are experienced by us as we look at his work. Finally, while Goldsworthy sees his work change as the elements work upon it, we only see a singular moment that has been selected from a whole spectrum of sights and experiences. Consequently, his photos are beautiful but they don’t provide us the stimulation that nature itself can provide, and which Goldsworthy himself experiences.

At times, Goldsworthy has been commissioned to make sculptural installations in galleries, which invariably come across like a stuffed animal in a museum. They lose their very connection to the environment that underpins his whole motivation to create.

Due to the inability of a photograph or museum exhibit to truly share the experience of nature, perhaps the true value of Goldsworthy's work is not to be found in the imagery he publishes, but in his ideas about ways to access the environment; the simple act of making a stone sculpture, or floating a leaf boat down the stream in order to not just observe nature, but to truly be part of it.

Pebbles Broken & Scraped

Icicle Star

Rowan Leaves & Hole

Goosefeathers