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
art past years
One of the beauties of art is that it reflects an artist's entire life. What I've learned over the past 30 years is really beginning to inform what I make. I hope that process continues until I die.
years boulders has-beens
There are occasions when I have moved boulders, but I'm reluctant to, especially ones that have been rooted in a place for many years.
winter artist years
Winter makes a bridge between one year and another and, in this case, one century and the next.
art years people
My art recognizes the human place, the human context - especially in Britain, which is a landscape so worked by people for thousands of years, written, deeply ingrained with the presence of people.
years tree one-day
If you've ever come across a tree that you've lived with for many years and then one day it's blown over, there's incredible shock and violence about 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.
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.