Earlier this week I watched the documentary Rivers and Tides featuring the art and perspective of artist Andy Goldsworthy. His work is all nature based and created in nature. He has a strong connection to the earth and finds/organizes tremendous beauty there.
One of the pieces that really captured me was him spending hours merging bits of icicle into a spiral around a rock. This piece is similar to the one he made in the movie. That site (Smithsonian Magazine) has several other photos of his work as well.
A lot of his work has a lot of tension in it, working up to the line of collapse in a piece. He enjoys that risk and learning to work with the material to acheive his goal. His arches are a perfect example of finding that balance.
Goldworthy's book Time shows how he creates his work to interact with and be affected by nature: working to get a project done as the tide comes in to consume it, creating a work so that time will age certain portions to a darker finish than the rest, finishing an ice sculpture before the morning sun melts it away...
The range of his work is wide, but always involves organic shapes and frequently involves circles or squiggly lines. He has done several commissioned pieces in which case he brought elemental pieces into the space. I find his work amazing and the video was inspiring.
| December 8, 2005 05:15pm | 
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