Wandering Dog

I'm not lost, but come and find me anyway.

Friday, January 26, 2007



Andy Goldsworthy: Rivers and Tides


Nursing my headcold on a slow day, I'm celebrating the selling of my fancy high-def television by watching Rivers and Tides. Bye bye tv. Say hello to Gwen, who will soon own you and take very good care of you.


Andy Goldsworthy is an artist that works solely with the materials of nature, stone, rock and wood, ice, snow, and wind. There is genius in him, who with that slow enduring passion for and patience with the workings of nature, can see so much in what is there, to see the poetry of iron in river, needles in leaves, the soft rain shadows. I take for granted that which I see, and do not stir underneath the surface, but for him, the minutiae, the smallest stir of wind means so much more. He has made it mean so much more for him, and he amplifies that meaning for us.


His creations do not last. They are enhanced by that time and destroyed by it. Ice melts, water dissolves, rocks wear. And so it reminds me of sand paintings, Tibetan mandalas, that are swept up soon after their creation.


Goldsworthy can explain things so beautifully, but there is more beyond, that is not explainable with words. His art is mysterious, even to him. He creates, but nature makes it what it truly is. Nature is creating the art, and he is simply harnessing particular potentials. He is watching its creation, just as we are. And it is dedication and love and insight into nature that allows his works to be.

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2 Comments:

  • At 4:03 PM, Blogger Laura-Marie said…

    The photo you post is so warmly beautiful!

     
  • At 1:23 PM, Blogger Daniel Artpologist said…

    Some of my earliest memories of land art come from the works of Andy Goldsworthy's coffee table book in my uncles living room in Bonny Doon. I can remember lots of this found art aesthetic inspired by Mr. Goldsworthy's work in the buildings in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I never really thought much on the power of his works but later in my life I seem to be affected by his work. They remind me of childhood a long time ago. Playing amongst the tangled timber, leaves, moss, and rain of those damp and muddy forested hills. There it is- it's the tactility of his work that is familiar to me. Like playing in the woods with only my creativity to rely on to make worlds out of those beautiful things that are found in nature.

     

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