Artist of the Outdoors

Recently a friend recommended I watch the video Rivers And Tides Working With Time featuring Andy Goldsworthy.

I give it FIVE stars!

Firstly, the photography is outstanding, but most of all Andy Goldsworthy is a phenomenal artist at heart. He lives and breathes creativity. He "performs" his art outdoors using various aspects of nature.

After watching him create, I found a bit of kinship to him having created a winding river of stones around my house. He and I both seem to connect with the winding, looping, unsymmetrical shape reminiscent of a meandering river.

Andy Goldsworthy is a British photographer, sculptor and environmentalist living in Scotland. He specialises in site specific art as well as Land art. For Goldsworthy nature is no longer just a concept, “My art makes me see again what is there and in this respect I am also rediscovering the child within me…”

Land Art, Earth Art or Earthworks is a movement which emerged in the U.S in the late 60’s and early 70’s. The main theme of this work is that the land is not just a scene or exhibition space for which a sculpture is to be placed. But rather the land is the work and whatever the artist has created shares a special relationship with its surroundings and is a part of it, for without the land the work could not exist.

Most pieces of Land Art have temporary life span, existing only for a short time before being absorbed by the nature around it, or left to erode or decay naturally, this itself being as much the work as its original form. The works are remembered only by photographs or film.

'Maple Leaves arrangement' by Andy Goldsworthy, this piece fully sums up what Land Art is about, nature constructing and being the work, rather than the work being placed in nature.

'Cracked Rock Spiral' Andy Goldsworthy. Goldsworthy's work is a perfect example of Land Art, as, taken out of its environment this piece would not work, the rocks could only be positioned on sand and in little time would be swept away by the sea. This time based element is a strong theme in Goldsworthy's work.

By the way, I found this video at my local library.