Gloucester Daily Times
http://www.gloucestertimes.com/
Published: March 20, 2008
seaARTS opens season spotlighting nature
By Gail McCarthy
Staff writer
Andy Goldsworthy, an artist, photographer and environmentalist, finds beauty in nature's ordinary objects such as stones, leaves and icicles. Out of these materials, he creates visual masterpieces beloved by people around the globe.
Goldsworthy's work and persona will be the centerpiece of the kick-off film event Tuesday night, hosted by the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts (seARTS) when it presents "Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time."
This is the first event in the 2008 seARTS film series, spearheaded by Anne Robinson, a seARTS board member who has 17 years' experience in the national office of PBS.
"Cape Ann's environment of granite, ocean, marsh, rivers and woods draws people to its natural beauty and invites a consideration of Goldsworthy's thinking about landscape and sculpture," she said. "This visually stunning, award-winning documentary by German filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer features internationally acclaimed British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy as he creates, and as nature acts on his work."
The son of a University of Leeds mathematician, Goldsworthy resides in Scotland, but his work resonates with admirers around the world. His art can be created in natural and urban settings.
"Ephemeral" is a word often used to describe his work. Some of his work is fleeting as it is exposed to the effects of the environment, whether it is the sun, wind, tide or temperature while other work is permanent. But all designs are intended to bring out the character of the surrounding land or natural landscape.
"I want to get under the surface. When I work with a leaf, rock, stick, it is not just that material in itself, it is an opening into the processes of life within and around it. When I leave it, these processes continue," according to a Goldsworthy quotation.
Robinson is one of those touched by Goldsworthy's creations.
"I love the film and I'm always surprised by Goldsworthy's work," Robinson said. "Given the incredible natural environment here on Cape Ann, this film seemed a perfect match. You look at his work, and then look at your own environment and see it a little bit differently."
She noted that Goldsworthy's landscape sculpture has been constructed in locations around the world including the North Pole, Japan and the Storm King Center in New York. Bookstores large and small carry volumes of his work.
Following the film, two Wentworth faculty members, Rob Trumbour of Rockport and Mark Klopfer of Marblehead, will lead a discussion. Trumbour, an assistant professor, is an architect and public artist. Klopfer, an associate professor, is an architect and landscape architect. Both can point to Goldsworthy as a source of inspiration for their own work as well as their teaching.
"The value in studying the work of Goldsworthy in architectural education is learning from his sensitivity to place and time," said Trumbour, a board member of Rockport's Art Harbor Inc., an arts education program.
In terms of what he values, he praised Goldsworthy for his ability to find the quiet beauty in a place and pull it to the surface momentarily for others to see and experience.
Trumbour recently created two photo-embedded illuminated ice-block sculptures in Rockport this past winter. Meanwhile, he is developing outdoor installations for next winter. In doing so, he looks to discover the intrinsic qualities of the place in which he plans to create the work.
"Cape Ann has an immediacy to it," he said. "It is rough-edged and direct and unabashed. For me, that is its beauty. It possesses qualities that people connect to viscerally. As I look ahead in my own work I hope to tap into those qualities here and make work that is relevant and that people can connect to."
Goldsworthy is quoted as noting that "change is the key to understanding."
"Movement, change, light, growth and decay are the lifeblood of nature, the energies that I try to tap through my work," Goldsworthy said. "...I want my art to be sensitive and alert to changes in material, season and weather. Each work grows, stays, decays.
"Process and decay are implicit," he said. "Transience in my work reflects what I find in nature."
Gail McCarthy can be reached at gmccarthy@gloucestertimes.com
If you go
What: "Rivers and Tides," a film about British sculptor and environmentalist Andy Goldsworthy, presented by the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts.
When: Tuesday, March 25, at 6:30 p.m., followed by a discussion.
Where: Gloucester Cinema, 74 Essex St. (Rt. 133) in Gloucester, 978-283-9188.
Tickets are $7 for seARTS members; $12 for adults; and $9 for seniors and students. To purchase tickets online visit www.searts.org/programs.html or call 978-281-1222. The film series is funded in part by the John and Abigail Adams Art Program from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, with corporate support from Renco Corp.