Andy Goldsworthy...

[User Removed]

More of an earthworks sculpture than a photographer, but since his photographs are the only documentation of his works existence, you can really consider him a photographer as well.

Any fans of his work here?

I've been familiar with his work for sometime now, but it was not until recently when I picked up a copy of his DVD did I have a greater appreciation for his art.

All the best,

Ryan McIntosh
www.RyanMcIntosh.net

 

[Leon]

I thinks he's a genius. really amazing creative mind

 

[User Removed]

Have you seen his video or ever heard him talk? I just loved it when he would start talking about how he is just trying to "understand the stone", or how the little broken twigs are comunicating with him. He truly is a genius.

I could not find any such website that he has, but here is a link to Google images to view some of his work.
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=andy goldsworthy&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

 

[Whiteymorange]

BIG fan. I have given books of his work to graduating students on numerous occasions. After really spending time with one of these books the kids never look at the landscape in the same way again.

 

[Allen Friday]

I assume that the DVD you are talking about is "Rivers and Tides" a documentary look at his work and methods. Loved it. Love his books. If you are talking about a different DVD, please post the title. I would like to see it.

 

[User Removed]

Yes, I'm talking about Rivers and Tides. They make the special edition of the DVD, but the extra disk does not have much more on it.

 

[Tony Egan]

There was an exhibition of his work in Sydney early this year and I watched the video which was also playing in the gallery. The prints were hideously expensive and only for the very serious and wealthy collector. I think he is on a different plane to everyone else. A soul really connected to the earth. Amazing hands.

 

[mikeg]

My favourite contemporary artist by a long way, and just as much a photographer as anyone else.

It's fascinating reading about how he documents his work with his photography. In many instances the photograph is just as important as the piece. Most of the time it's the only record of the sculpture. One piece that stands out for me is in his book Arch where he says;

“It is so different making a sculpture for the moment to making one that can be seen at all times. Photography becomes a way of understanding and extracting an idea from the piece. There is an intensity about this process that I don't feel when I make a work that will be there a long time. I like and dislike it for this reason. I dislike it because it is hard and a strain and a burden. I am constructing the story of this arch in images. I have to extract from the journey the visual story of the arch. Making the arch itself in the various places is becoming less of a challenge than drawing the work together.”

He also spends a lot of time concerned about the light and waiting for just the right conditions to photograph his installations in the same way as we will wait for the “right” light to photograph, for example, a landscape.

A true genius.

Thanks for the heads-up on the DVD. I didn't know about that.

Cheers

Mike

 

[User Removed]

Mike,

I highly suggest getting the DVD. The special edition is actually pretty neat, even thought it does include much more, but it has the whole documentation of the large snowball project in London, where he placed 13 huge snowballs around the city to melt, and each one had different stuff inside.

Regards,

Ryan McIntosh
www.RyanMcIntosh.net

My favourite contemporary artist by a long way, and just as much a photographer as anyone else.

It's fascinating reading about how he documents his work with his photography. In many instances the photograph is just as important as the piece. Most of the time it's the only record of the sculpture. One piece that stands out for me is in his book Arch where he says;

“It is so different making a sculpture for the moment to making one that can be seen at all times. Photography becomes a way of understanding and extracting an idea from the piece. There is an intensity about this process that I don't feel when I make a work that will be there a long time. I like and dislike it for this reason. I dislike it because it is hard and a strain and a burden. I am constructing the story of this arch in images. I have to extract from the journey the visual story of the arch. Making the arch itself in the various places is becoming less of a challenge than drawing the work together.”

He also spends a lot of time concerned about the light and waiting for just the right conditions to photograph his installations in the same way as we will wait for the “right” light to photograph, for example, a landscape.

A true genius.

Thanks for the heads-up on the DVD. I didn't know about that.

Cheers

Mike

 

[BWKate]

I went and saw Rivers and Tides twice at the University of Victoria's Cinecenta movie theater. Great movie about his work and the nature of art making.
Andy Goldsworthy has been quite an inspiration for me. My "Secret Life of Still" series was inspired by Goldsworthy's work. His work is amazing and I will purchase the DVD when it's available in Victoria. I'll probably have to order it.

 

[Struan Gray]

Ditto to everything said here. "Time" is my favourite book. The hole in the horse chestnut leaves and the ice scuptures my favourite works. I wish I had his dexterity.

Using his work as inspiration is also a fantastic way to get small children interested in art and aesthetics.

 

[mikeg]

Using his work as inspiration is also a fantastic way to get small children interested in art and aesthetics.

I agree. My son came home from school a few years ago (when he was about 8), with a lovely small scale clay arch. Unknown to me, they had been looking at Goldsworthy's sculptures in school. He'd really enjoyed both looking at Goldsworthy's work and making his own interpretation.

Cheers

Mike

 

[Struan Gray]

The last time we tried making rain shadows, it rained for four days

 

[Helen B]

I find it a lot easier to verbalize that which I don't like about certain landscape art than to explain why I value other work very highly. I'd just come out with a load of trite garbage about 'connecting' that would be frustratingly inadequate.

OK, so: "I'm another long-time fan of Andy Goldsworthy's work". Richard Long, Hamish Fulton, Tom Cooper, Charles Jenks and Ian Hamilton Finlay also evoke the same indefinable connection with a certain spirit, though in their own different ways.

Best,
Helen

 

[severian]

Goldsworthy as photographer

More of an earthworks sculpture than a photographer, but since his photographs are the only documentation of his works existence, you can really consider him a photographer as well.

Any fans of his work here?

I've been familiar with his work for sometime now, but it was not until recently when I picked up a copy of his DVD did I have a greater appreciation for his art.

All the best,

Ryan McIntosh
www.RyanMcIntosh.net

Ryan,
I actually posted this question about Goldsworthy a few months ago. Goldsworthy creates and then photographs the creation. The photographs are as worthy as the piece photographed. Goldsworthy seems to be a transcendant and enlightened person. I'd love to have lunch with him. I show "Rivers and Tides " to every photography class that I teach. Some get it and some don't.

Severian, Autarch of Urth, Journeyman in the Society of the Seekers of Truth and Penitence aka Jack B

 

[PKM-25]

Ryan,
The photographs are as worthy as the piece photographed. Goldsworthy seems to be a transcendant and enlightened person.

This is exactly right of Andy.

For three months, Andy and his waller's built a beautiful serpentine wall out side of the new Doerr-Hosier building at the Aspen Institute. The project was largely hush-hush as was his preference about it.

The Institute is one of my more coveted clients, I was asked to be the exclusive photographer of the whole building project, wall and all. Although I had limited knowledge of Andy's work, I took the 8 month gig and learned a great deal about him.

Andy is very protective of his art and quite often he is resistive of another photographer's take on it. This is well within right's of Andy as he still the best judge of his own artwork and how it should be brought forth.

Remember, much of Andy's work is ephemeral so a lasting photographic image is all he really has at the end of the day on some pieces.

Along side of high end digital, I shot from day one with Kodachrome in either a Nikon FM3, Hassy XPan or my M6.

Andy liked that I was using film. He was intrigued by my use of Kodachrome. I even helped him on a couple of "rubs" he was doing off of a conceptual piece. On the day he took his Hasselblad up the cherry picker to shoot the nearly done wall, I snuck a roll of Kodachrome into his camera bag. In the end, I had won his respect, gained a new friend and made some damn fine images.

I asked Andy to autograph two books. He agreed. When I got them back, he had not only signed them, he had done a "Rub" with red dirt on the opposite page using a wire shaped like the wall. It was all truly rich in experience, priceless.

I can't wait to see Andy and two of the wallers when they come back next month for some serpentine tile work. There will be lots of snow around, and that could be fun for the whole crew...

It's great to see some fans here!!!

 

[Blighty]

Well, I'm a fan. We have, on the moorland above Lancaster, a 'triptych'. I can also add that last year, I almost got my fat a**e wedged inside one of the pieces whilst sheltering from the rain. This happen to anybody else?