Friday, March 9, 2012

Environmental sculptor: the British-but-global Andy Goldsworthy


Portrait-of-Andy-Goldsworthy
Originally uploaded by Albijn
Andy Goldsworthy, OBE (born 1956) is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist producing site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings, says Wikipedia. He lives and works in Scotland.

The materials used include brightly-coloured flowers, icicles, leaves, mud, pinecones, snow, stone, twigs, and thorns.

He said, "I think it's incredibly brave to be working with flowers and leaves and petals. But I have to: I can't edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature as a whole."[7]

Goldsworthy is considered the founder of modern rock balancing. For his ephemeral works, Goldsworthy often uses only his bare hands, teeth, and found tools to prepare and arrange the materials.

Photography plays a crucial role in his art due to its ephemeral and transient state. According to Goldsworthy, "Each work grows, stays, decays – integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its heights, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expressed in the image. Process and decay are implicit."[8]

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