Andy Goldsworthy
Andy Goldsworthy
Andy Goldsworthy, OBEis a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist producing site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. He lives and works in Scotland...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionSculptor
Date of Birth26 July 1956
attempt contain growth hopeless melt released seen
Some snowballs contain seeds, which will be released in the melt in what could be seen as a hopeless attempt at growth in a built-up environment.
acceptable breaking fact familiar hammer response stone violent
Breaking stone with a hammer is a familiar and acceptable way of working the material, but is in fact a more violent response than firing.
connects energy life red round running taught vein worked
I have worked with this red all over the world-in Japan, California, France, Britain, Australia-a vein running round the earth. It has taught me about the flow, energy and life that connects one place with another.
connections forget lost
We often forget that WE ARE NATURE. Nature is not something separate from us. So when we say that we have lost our connection to nature, we’ve lost our connection to ourselves.
people
People also leave presence in a place even when they are no longer there.
land weather understanding
The process of growth is obviously critical to my understanding of the land and myself. So the process is far more unpredictable with far more compromises with the day, the weather, the material.
rain independent rocks
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.
pavement steps sitting
We leave our presence in the pavement. We're walking over it, sitting on steps.
time giving growth
Time gives growth, it gives continuity and it gives change. And in the case of some sculptures, time gives a patina to them.
work-out important sculpture
My sculpture can last for days or a few seconds - what is important to me is the experience of making. I leave all my work outside and often return to watch it decay.
thinking always-trying appearance
I think that I'm always trying to get beyond the surface appearance of things, to go beyond what I can just see.
simple filters lenses
My approach to photograph is kept simple, almost routine. All work, good and bad, is documented. I use standard film, a standard lens and no filters. Each work grows, strays, decays-integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its height, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expresses in the image. Process and decay are implicit.
winter snow childhood
Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood.
rocks ice trying
As with all my work, whether it's a leaf on a rock or ice on a rock, I'm trying to get beneath the surface appearance of things. Working the surface of a stone is an attempt to understand the internal energy of the stone.