Andy Goldsworthy Retrospective
There is a 50 year retrospective of artist Andy Goldsworthy on exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh at the moment. It is on until November 2nd. It is a wonderful exhibition, which prompted me to have lots of new ideas and reflections. Although this blog post can in no way do justice to the installations and photographs, I want to be able to describe how and why I have found it so inspirational.
The scale and ambition of a number of the installations is impressive - the mud wall which appears baked on, and the channel of tangled oak branches. I loved the delicacy of the ferns snaking around one wall, similar in appearance to a fractal. At the other side of the room, there was a simple arrangement of sticks pointing to the centre of a circle like a clock face.
There is a dramatic installation as you enter the exhibition - rows and rows of barbed wire strung tightly between two columns, blocking your entrance to the rooms beyond. This really spoke to me. I grew up in the countryside, close to Dunkeld. The dominant form of farming was sheep farming. With the exception of lambing season, mostly, the fields close to us were empty, and my sister and I had free rein to go anywhere and explore. In my 30s, the farming changed to that of beef cattle - and when I would return to visit the family home, it was no longer possible to walk freely through the fields. They were all either electrified or had barbed wire. We would have had a very different childhood if this had been the case growing up. Being able to explore the land freely gave me confidence outdoors, made me curious and independent, and definitely shaped me as a person.
This comprehensive retrospective demonstrates that in many ways, Andy Goldsworthy was ahead of his time, and was a forebear of social media in terms of recording and sharing his artistic process. He documents the source of this glorious zig zag of feathers by showing him plucking them from a found dead bird. It was fascinating seeing the development of some of his work in step by step images.
More than anything though, the exhibition encourages you to embrace invention and exploration. So many of his photographs made me think of my daughter when she was young. Her and her friends would spend HOURS playing with leaves, mud, stones, ice, frost and snow. His work encourages people to explore nature with this childlike curiosity. A group of us watched his footage of the response of Londoners to six giant snowballs dropped into various locations across the city in June 2000 with great hilarity. People loved them and couldn't resist poking them. Andy Goldsworthy demonstrates so clearly how important access to green space is, and to encourage everyone to play in it. We all benefit from the perspective and cleansing aspect of nature, and can bring the space it buys in our heads into other areas of life. I'm going to end on two of my favourite images where he has turned cracks in rotting trees into what looks to me like lightning strikes - incredible.
