Storm King and Andy Goldsworthy

It was a hot and humid day. What did I expect in upstate New York in late August? We were about an hour into our mid-day trek through the lush Hudson Valley landscape of Storm Kingwhen I began to envy the napping two-year-old grandchild passed out in her stroller. It was my first visit to the legendary art center and I wasn’t going to wimp out because of the weather – ahead were 500 acres dedicated to a collection of more than 100 sculptures, all carefully situated in the pristine landscape. I forged ahead as works by Dennis Oppenheim, Maya Lin, Richard Serra, Alexander Calder and Barnett Newman (to name a few) slowly revealed themselves. Finally, soaked in sweat and starting to weaken in the knees, my haughty attitude toward the people who had opted to take the tram began to soften. Just when I was about to be the first in our group to cave and suggest we hop on board, there it was: Andy Goldsworthy’s Wall.

The nearly half mile of stacked stone wall starts out ordinarily enough, then takes off in a wild serpentine chase downhill around and through a line of trees, until it disappears into a small lake only to reappear on the other side, straighten itself out and continue its march until it dead ends at a highway.

If you don’t want to brave the elements or can’t get to Storm King anytime soon, the wall is beautifully documented from conception to completion in over 100 photographs in Andy Goldsworthy: Wall at Storm King. Also included are photographs of ephemeral works that Goldsworthy did at the site before and after the wall was completed. Wet autumn leaves are pressed into the grooves in the wet bark of a tree to form a bold yellow design. Vivid shades of sumac leaves are placed around a hole in the ground creating a sense of wonder and mystery.

Accompanying text gives insight into his creative process:

“Searching out lines that already exist interests me more than imposing new ones. I have made lines that explore and follow the contours of a rock, the edge of river, the growth of a branch, the junction between house and street . . . Pressing leaves into the bark of a tree produces lines dictated by the tree’s growth patterns. The intention is not just to make a line, but to draw the change, movement, growth and decay that flow through a place.”

Another more recent book, Andy Goldsworthy: Ephemeral Works 2004-2014, consists entirely of Goldsworthy’s photographs of his ephemeral works. The artist's endless creativity is on display as he interacts with whatever environment he finds himself in -- throwing kelp in the air at the shore and capturing its aerial arabesques, placing ice sheets on a barbed-wire fence near his home in Scotland so they perfectly capture the light, or making rain shadows late at night on the sidewalks of NYC. Ephemeral Works documents approximately 200 of these works, works that by their very nature only exist for us through photography.

Cross-posted from Jane Chafin: Art, Books, Culture