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Artist Known for Ephemera Creates Slate Landscape by Susan Stone
National Public Radio ^ | 3/28/05 | Susan Stone

Posted on 03/28/2005 6:44:06 AM PST by Republicanprofessor

Artist Andy Goldsworthy is best known for working alone in nature, making fragile, temporary sculptures from leaves, rocks, even ice. The sculptor works quietly for hours in each place, a process captured in the 2001 documentary Rivers and Tides.

Photographs of Goldsworthy's work hang in galleries and museums around the world. His latest project is a permanent piece in the center of Washington, D.C. It's the first new work commissioned by the National Gallery of Art in 26 years.

Goldsworthy mastered optics and engineering to create a series of domes constructed of slabs of slate designed to hold together permanently without the use of any cement.

The project, called "Roof," took Goldsworthy nine weeks of work to complete, spread out over a period of four months. The sculptured features nine domes rising from an area outside the Gallery's East Building. Each dome, topped by a black hole, measures 6 feet high and 28 feet across. The gallery, which was designed by IM Pei, features sharp vertical lines and light marble that contrast with the rounded forms of rough-hewn stacked slate.

Domes and black holes are themes Goldsworthy has repeated in his work for decades, whether executing them in leaves, sticks or stacked slate. They are forms that echo throughout the natural world, from the largest galaxies to the smallest cells.

"The underlying tension of a lot of my art is to try and look through the surface appearance of things," Goldsworthy says. "Inevitably, one way of getting beneath the surface is to introduce a hole, a window into what lies below."

Susan Stone followed the creation of Goldsworthy's new sculpture for the latest installment of our series on the intersection between science and art.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: andygoldsworthy; art; nationalgallery; sculpture
I heard this story on NPR this morning. I recently saw the DVD, Rivers and Tides about his work. This is going to spark the "Is this art" debate that was dominant around Christo's Gates. But after some thought, I am moved by his work and would like to hear from those who might see the installation at the National Gallery.
1 posted on 03/28/2005 6:44:07 AM PST by Republicanprofessor
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To: Republicanprofessor


He's creative.

If you have to ask "is this art?," it's not art. It may be creative. Andy Warhol is creative. He isn't an artist.

This is creativity and it's entertaining and interesting. But it isn't art.


2 posted on 03/28/2005 6:48:31 AM PST by LauraleeBraswell ( CONSERVATIVE FIRST-Republican second.)
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To: LauraleeBraswell
If that is art, then my cat should be a highly-revered artist. He spends hours in nature, working with natural materials to create miniature sculptures.

Come to think of it, perhaps I'll make a documentary of it.

3 posted on 03/28/2005 6:56:37 AM PST by RushCrush (The FReeper formerly known as Alias. "Crime does not pay...as well as politics." A. E. Newman)
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To: Republicanprofessor

One of my all-time favorite websites: www.ephemeranow.com
Spectacular 40's - 50's car, furniture, and appliance ads. Mostly car ads I know many on FR will appreciate.


4 posted on 03/28/2005 7:07:43 AM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder (You get more with a gun and a smile than just a smile itself!)
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To: Republicanprofessor

I'd have to see it first


5 posted on 03/28/2005 7:11:17 AM PST by nuconvert (No More Axis of Evil by Christmas ! TLR)
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To: Republicanprofessor
To be art, it has to communicate something. Piling sticks together while alone in the woods isn't art any more than masturbating in a closet is sex.
6 posted on 03/28/2005 7:13:52 AM PST by LexBaird ("Democracy can withstand anything but democrats" --Jubal Harshaw (RA Heinlein))
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To: Republicanprofessor

It's an arch. It was a big deal when the Romans did it.


7 posted on 03/28/2005 7:18:47 AM PST by metesky ("Maine: Last to know; First to go.")
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To: Republicanprofessor

"Rivers and Tides" is awesome. I love his work. I love how he uses things from nature with no unnatural elements. His asthetic appeals to me because I make woven baskets and wreaths from natural elements I find on my property.

Watching him make sculptures from icicles is really something.


8 posted on 03/28/2005 7:34:35 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (Save The Earth. It's The Only Planet With Chocolate.)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin
I posted this before I could get an image. Any one have an image to post of his work, preferably from the National Gallery?

I'm not sure the National Gallery work is the best. I think his work is better in nature: the rock constructions that slowly vanish as the tide comes in. His pieces may be compromised when placed in man-made environments.

And, yes, it is art. There is a strong meaning in it: about history, nature, man's place in all of that, construction with ancient materials, light, and the intersection of all of these elements and themes. Perhaps these themes are the more fascinating because of his choice of form: of his constructions in slate, other stone or other materials (including icicles).

I think it was the shot of icicles in Rivers and Tides that woke me up and made me see his work anew.

9 posted on 03/28/2005 7:47:28 AM PST by Republicanprofessor (10)
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To: Republicanprofessor

Based on the 3 examples provided by NPR, he seems obsessed, creating the same structure over and over again using different materials.

Art? No, not any more than any garden (which is also an arrangement of natural materials, albeit living) - and gardens are more beautiful than what he produces.

Why does his manipulation of leaves have more meaning than the beauty of the leaves themselves, as they are naturally?

So what he does with sticks is "art", but someone who creates wreaths from living or dried materials is merely a "craftsman"...


10 posted on 03/28/2005 1:22:06 PM PST by LibFreeOrDie (L'chaim!)
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