Saturday, July 20, 2013

Real Life Heretic: Andrew Goldsworthy

To say that an artist is a heretic is rather redundant, but Goldsworthy is an example of a particular type of artistic heresy that is about meaning and purpose and value and so it interests me. There is a movie about Goldsworthy that paints quite a beautiful picture. What strikes me is that whatever it is that gives each particular piece its purpose meaning is also the very thing that will destroy it. A sculpture made of the stones in a tidal pool will be swallowed up by the tide. Isn't this the way it is with heretical ideas. The very thing that makes them heretical will also be the thing that destroys them when the disconnect is exposed.

The other thing I like about Goldsworthy  and other similar artists is that you have to ask where is the art? There is an experience that the artist has but that is not what the viewer sees. They see the artifact: the photograph, and imagine the experience of being there but the sculpture is long gone. 

The formula can be adapted. The Studio in Fairfield, CT takes young people to the woods to create "Goldsworthy-like" sculpture but Goldsworthy is no longer part of the process. He disappears like his work.