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| Hat-tip HERE for photograph |
Andy Goldsworthy.
He has a birthday coming up on Sunday: born 26 July 1956 in Cheshire, now lives in Scotland.
He works with all manner of natural materials : ice, snow, water, wood, flowers, stones, pebbles....Many or most of his pieces are by nature transient, so to preserve a memory of his work he photographs them - at their best.
I can do no better than add parts 1 to 4 of videos showing some of his works, and occasional sight of him working on them, along with quotes of a few of his remarks.
The videos are each around 4 and a half minutes long.
If videos aren't your thing, just go to Google Image, insert this artist's name in the search box - hundreds of examples of his work are pictured there.
ASTROLOGY
I won't post a natal chart, that would seem intrusive - but will just say that Mr Goldsworthy has his Leo Sun conjoining Uranus, and natal Venus in Gemini in trine to Neptune in Libra. Highly creative art arising from unexpected sources?
I'm not familiar with this artist, but he has quite the following from what I can see from a quick internet search, and is highly respected in the art community. Most of his pieces are ephemeral and captured on film, but he does have permanent installations.
ReplyDeleteHis permanent creations, mostly stone works, are very nice, but remind me of what I could expect from a highly skilled stone mason or landscape architect...Wiki states that he employed "dry-stone wallers" personnel to execute "Roof". I've seen many very beautiful stone works in yard landscapes that are not considered art, as they were installed by expert stone masons. Thin line between craft and art, having craft workers construct an artist's concept, but I've seen documentaries of many large-scale sculptors that employ whole crews of personnel to complete their work. Many have said that most of Andy Worhol's lithographs were never made by Andy and were his conceptualizations produced by his staff of employees.
Goldworthy's temporary, photographed pieces are of more interest to me, but again, I tend to underestimate the distinction between craft and art when it comes to his work. Tracey Emin's "My Bed" is much the same, except she used man-made materials for her installation, and for over $4 million, the buyer received a true 3D set-up, not photographs...LOL.
mike ~ I see the best of his work as that made from leaves, flowers, twigs, stones - the smaller pieces.
ReplyDeleteI guess even Leonardo and Michelangelo employed "helpers" to bring their art into being at times. The art is in the idea, design and inspiration, the craft in the construction, especially when it's something huge.
I wouldn't class Tracy Emin in the same class as Goldsworthy - I've no time for her nonsense. Talk about Emperor's new clothes! :-)
I haven't watched all the videos yet, but the first one was relaxing, good music too. Some of Goldworthy's creations are actually kind of beautiful, especially the ones made from ice(?)
ReplyDeleteI also like what he said about wanting to find nature in cities. Me too. It makes a difference.
LB ~ Oh yes - I'd forgotten about the ice sculptures - beautiful (it's several days since I watched the videos myself). I think he said that he used "spit" to seal one of those together - maybe the star shaped one...lol...well, we are all star stuff after all (Carl Sagan told us!)
ReplyDeleteWhat, Carl Sagan??? I thought it was Moby:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1rFAaAKpVc
LB ~ :-) Them too.
ReplyDelete“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” ~~~ Carl Sagan, Cosmos
Favourite quote of mine - I always think it manages to make sense of astrology in a few words....yet Carl Sagan didn't! ;-/
I have been seeing two birthdays for Andy,7/25 and 7/26 as of late. But, at the time that I used his art to test my perceptions of the semiotic relationships between pictorial and astrological symbols systems,there was no birthday to be found on the web, only the birth year,1956:
ReplyDeletehttp://pedantus.blogspot.com/2006/04/andy-goldsworthy.html?m=1
So, his level of abstraction (an apparent authenticity) has aided my search for how the natal chart 'essence' of individual existence is translated into expressible forms of individuated signification...the mediation/modification of available culture into instances of symbolized selfhood...the unconscious projection of the individual natal chart pattern.
Rog ~ Hi there! Thanks for this additional info. I must have taken birth data from Wikipedia - goodness knows their source, they have been known to be wrong before!
ReplyDeleteThe brief observation I made in the post about his astrology holds good for either day, I think. (Phew!)
I do admire the concept of your Pedantus Pontificus blog Doing astrology backwards, well, er...maybe inside out, in search of objectivity.