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
mother firsts snowball
The first snowball I froze was put in my mother's deep freeze when I was in my early 20s.
journey snow quality
It takes between three and six hours to make each snowball, depending on snow quality. Wet snow is quick to work with but also quick to thaw, which can lead to a tense journey to the cold store.
ice wind snow
I have to understand the nature of change. And I cannot just work with stone or the more permanent materials. I need to work with leaves and ice and snow and mud and clay and water and the rising tide and the wind and all these.
winter snow quality
Even in winter an isolated patch of snow has a special quality.
winter snow childhood
Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood.
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.
heart swings hands
Time confined into blind caves or extended through tunnels, responds to the call of infinity, which teases with its promise of freedom. outside the body, time is a pair of compasses in the hands of eternity, but inside it is a pendulum, fastened to the heart. the heart takes its measure from the lengthening swing of the pendulum surveying what time is left. in its own rhythm time spreads itself wildly here and there and is crippled elsewhere. its unequally distributed weight wounds my body - that is how the particularities of my life are manifest.
scary watches stones
It's frightening and unnerving to watch a stone melt.