Beginning today, Galerie Lelong in New York presents Interventions in the Landscape , a group show featuring film and photography by artists who engage, manipulate, and transform landscapes. It’s a given that British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy would be included. His large-scale ice arches, snaking walls, and trompe l’oeil leaf assemblages have been working with and defying natural forces for decades, translating the elements of the landscape from objects in a passive backdrop to subjects with agency. The only problem with his work? You usually have to travel to see it. We’re taking this opportunity to bring to you a roundup of the various site specific installations by Goldsworthy currently on view around the world. Whether you’re at the Galerie Lelong in New York or on the island of Alderney in the United Kingdom, here is where the Goldsworthy’s at.
Andy Goldsworthy, Alderney Stone, 2011. Mixed materials. Installation view on Alderney Island, Guernsey, UK. © Andy Goldsworthy. Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York.
In April 2011, 11 large stones of compacted soil from the island of Alderney were placed at various locations around the island and unveiled to the public. The stones — structured internally with heavy chains and barbed wire — were the culmination of several years’ work by Goldsworthy and his team. For the “inaugural walk” on April 21 — the walk was over 10 miles — one stone, the Fort Albert Stone, was shot with an air rifle to cause the first change. Get a closer look at how the stones were built by visiting the web site for the project.
Andy Goldsworthy, Walk, 1977 (film stills). Morecambe Bay, England. Super 8mm film transferred to DVD. Duration: 12 minutes, 27 seconds. © Andy Goldsworthy. Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York.
One of Goldsworthy’s early works, this film documents a walk Goldsworthy took in England’s Morecambe Bay in an exploration of his body interacting with the terrain.
Andy Goldsworthy, White Walls, 2007. Porcelain clay. 1,964 linear feet, one inch thick (dimensions variable). Installation at Galerie Lelong, New York, 2007. Pictured: Day 3. © Andy Goldsworthy. Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York.
For this piece, Goldsworthy produced a special clay that he smeared on the walls of the gallery. As the clay dried, the experience of the viewers who attended the show would alter over time. If visitors came on the first day, they would have seen a pristine white cube gallery. If they came days or weeks later, they saw a dramatically different situation with the walls crumbling and decaying.
Andy Goldsworthy. Street Dirt – Afternoon, West 57th between 11th and 12th Avenues, New York, March 11, 2010, 2010. Detail of 5 from a suite of 22 unique inkjet prints. Overall: 37 x 55-3/4 inches (94 x 141.5 cm). © Andy Goldsworthy. Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York.
Andy Goldsworthy. Three New York Rain Shadows / Corner of 85th Street and Central Park West. Late Afternoon. 24 January 2010 / Times Square. Early Morning. 3 March 2010 / Corner of 53rd Street and 7th Avenue. Morning. 12 March 2010. Unique HD video triptych with sound 3 projections – dimensions variable. © Andy Goldsworthy. Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York.
Rain and snow shadows are a recurring theme in Goldsworthy’s work. For these events, he checks the weather channel, waits until snow or rainfall is predicted, and then goes out and lies on the ground to create a negative dry space as the elements alter the material around him. Last spring, he participated in a show for Galerie Lelong in which he created rain shadows around New York City. While Goldsworthy does these around the world, this was one of the first of these projects he’s done in an urban context.
Work with Cattails, 2011. © Andy Goldsworthy. Courtesy of the artist and Pori Art Museum, Finland.
For this site-specific installation at the Pori Art Museum in Finland, Goldsworthy used cattails that were collected by the artist and his team in the marshes in Finland. The screen of cattails is held together by an assortment of carefully placed thorns and other natural materials.
Five Men, Seventeen Days, Fifteen Boulders, One Wall, 2010. Fieldstone. 4-5’ x 309’ x 18-32” © Andy Goldsworthy. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Lelong, New York © Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York. Photo credit: Jerry L. Thompson.
Andy Goldsworthy’s Storm King Wall is one of the artist’s best known works in the United States. The wall, commissioned in the late ’90s by the Storm King Art Center, one of the world’s leading sculpture parks, is now complemented by another wall graced with the touch of Andy Goldsworthy. Along with a select group of artists, Goldsworthy was asked to create a new work for Storm King’s 50th anniversary exhibition. He worked with professional wallers from the UK to re-work a dilapidated 309-foot wall on the park grounds. As he is wont to do, Goldsworthy made use of found material on the property — in this case 250 tons of stones — to build a large swathe of the wall, which winds around boulders placed within a tree grove.
Preliminary Sketch for Snow House, 2010. © Andy Goldsworthy. Courtesy Galerie Lelong, New York.
Through December 31, 2011, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts hosts the exhibition Andy Goldsworthy: Snow. The goal of the show is in part to raise awareness of this internationally renowned artist, and also to raise funds for his proposed project, Snow House, which if acquired would render deCordova the only institution in New England with a major site-specific outdoor installation by Goldsworthy. In honor of the proposed sculpture, the current exhibition includes snow-related works by the artist (photographs, video, drawings), research about ice harvesting in New England, and the drawings for Goldworthy’s proposal for Snow House.
Hawthorn Tree Snowball, 2001. Two C prints 33 x 33 in. each. © Andy Goldsworthy. Courtesy of the Artist and Galerie Lelong, New York.
Hawthorn Tree Snowball is one of the works in the exhibition Andy Goldsworthy: Snow at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
Snowballs in Summer/Glasgow/Dogwood, 1988-89. One image in a suite of four C prints. 27 1/2 x 77 1/2 in. each. © Andy Goldsworthy. Courtesy of the Artist and Galerie Lelong, New York.
The suite of images Snowballs in Summer/Glasgow/Dogwood are included in the exhibition currently on view at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.
Roof, 2005. © Andy Goldsworthy. Courtesy of the Artist and Galerie Lelong, New York.
If you happen to be in Washington, D.C., check out the rooftop of the National Gallery of Art where you’ll see one of Goldsworthy’s boldest works. Roof is comprised of nine hollow domes of stacked-slate, each one roughly six feet high and 27 feet wide. Inspired by his stately surroundings, Goldsworthy sourced shapes and materials from Neolithic burial chambers and Byzantine dwelling cairns. Suffice to say, this one, unlike his outdoor ice arches, will be around for a while. This enduring work is also, appropriately, part of the museum’s permanent collection.