Andy Goldsworthy - Storm King Wall (1998)

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Storm King Sculpture Park, Hudson Valley, New York

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Storm King Wall, Andy Goldsworthy (1998)

Andy Goldsworthy is among the most admired artists of our time. What artist has not stacked stones on a beach? Goldsworthy is the king of this. 

Noted for his stone arches and constructions, he has installed one of his largest works at Storm King Arts Center in New York. Goldsworthy is considered an environmental artist. His works are made of materials at hand and native to their site. The Storm King Wall meanders through a grove of trees, passes beneath a pond, and extends across a plain. The line of the wall responds to its surroundings, curving amongst the trees, gathering height amongst mature trees, diving beneath the pond, and straightening across the flat plain. 
 

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Andy Goldsworthy (1956 - )

Me atop Storm King Wall

Andy Goldsworthy is a trained artist, having studied at Bradford College and Preston Polytechnic. Materials are critical to his art. These may be ice, water, leaves, sticks, wool, stone, grass - whatever may be available at the site. Therefore, site (or place) may be the most important aspect of his art. He claims to "shake hands with a place". In this way he animates and personifies the place, considering the site to be a friend and to have human-like characteristics.

By investing a place with a personality he believes he can then understand the essence of the place. He does not transform places, rather he expresses the energy and desire that the place speaks out to him. This is an exciting point-of-differentiation between him and other artists; Andy Goldsworthy practices neither Modern nor Post-Modern epistemology, but rather the most rare on Earth today - a Traditional Durkheimian Sacred Model where the most important events are "here and now".

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Storm King Wall

Storm King Wall, Andy Goldsworthy (1998)

Cairns are piles of rocks that mark hiking trails. As a hiker passes, he or she lays a new stone and the pile grows. These can become quite large and significant depending on the popularity of the trail and the supply of stones. I believe it was Cairns, which are popular in Goldsworthy's native Great Britain, that first inspired him to work with balanced stone constructions. The Storm King Wall is an evolution of his stone works. From above, the line of the wall features a defined squiggle - similar to an oxbowing river. This squiggle line has become one of Goldsworthy's signatures. It represents the flow of energy and the passing of energy sources.

Goldsworthy has deliberately wrapped his wall around trees. Storm King Wall responds to the environment rather than the opposite; most traditional walls divide the environment and then nature responds to the presence of the wall. This may indicate a thesis or a statement about how humankind should behave in the environment; to respond and to live in harmony with our environment rather than to impress ourselves upon the environment.

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Video

Andy Goldsworth in his own words:

Storm King Wall begins at 6:00 into Section 7 and continues into Section 8 of the film Rivers and Tides

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