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
running artist australia
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.
simple artist ideas
A snowball is simple, direct and familiar to most of us. I use this simplicity as a container for feelings and ideas that function on many levels.
night artist gone
Abandoning the project was incredibly stressful after having gone through the process of building the room, installing the kiln, collecting the stones, sitting with the kiln day and night as it came to temperature, experiencing the failures.
artist lines energy
The relationship between the public and the artist is complex and difficult to explain. There is a fine line between using this critical energy creatively and pandering to it.
artist elements splits
Stones are checked every so often to see if any have split or at worst exploded. An explosion can leave debris in the elements so the firing has to be abandoned.
winter artist years
Winter makes a bridge between one year and another and, in this case, one century and the next.
mean thinking artist
I'm an artist living in a small, Scottish village. So one would expect to be treated with some sort of caution. And the village and the farmers have shown enormous tolerance of me and interest in what I do. I mean, they don't necessarily understand what I'm doing all the time. But they, you know, I think they respect what I do and that there is a connection between what they do with the land and what I do, you know, that we're both dependent on weather and respond to that.
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.
origin
Fire is the origin of stone. By working the stone with heat, I am returning it to its source.
photography distance way
Photography is a way of putting distance between myself and the work which sometimes helps me to see more clearly what it is that I have made.
firsts reason
My work comes first, reasons for it follow.
rocks want sticks
I want to get under the surface. When I work with a leaf, rock, stick, it is not just that material in itself, it is an opening into the processes of life within and around it. When I leave it, these processes continue.
memories historical stones
A stone is ingrained with geological and historical memories.
ifs repeats fascinating
If you repeat something, it can become pointless. Some things can repeat and be endlessly fascinating.