OF ANDY G[oldsworthy]
Of the tree-welds to the stone. There is no hole visible.
First idea was that I should look at the sculpture garden
also looking around the perimeter of the gallery.
Not necessarily
drawn to sunlight,
you can feel in the stone in the place . . .
Go to its origin.
OF ANDY G[oldsworthy]
Of the building—-there was a Japanese garden that had become inappropriate.
Find the pool
again & fill it with clay.
Near to the cracks’
difference, the glass.
You look down there & you see the earth
gallery. So I built a hole & lifted it off the ground.
Barry Alpert / Silver Spring, MD US / 3-9-05 (4:38 PM)
Perhaps I should briefly sketch the history of the site just external to
the East Building of the National Gallery of Art along Pennsylvania Avenue,
starting with I.M. Pei’s initial conception of a reflecting pool surrounded
by enough room to allow for the installation of sculpture. Then in the
eighties the area was landscaped and specific gardens were constructed in
support of certain exhibitions. Despite the seemingly permanent presence
of Goldsworthy’s site-specific sculpture ROOF, the two points where the
sculpture extends through the museum’s glass will generate continuing
discussion about interactivity, security, & maintenance.
Here's how I would now present the full text of OF ANDY G, initially
written while viewing a videotape of the artist talking and then posted as
three separate snaps:
OF ANDY G[oldsworthy]
Of looking, of using, trying . . .
fallen into the stream.
And sometimes in counterpoint
not to see that change as something negative, but as
dead trees creased along the fold to catch,
you know, that feeling—-at least for me it’s
got . . . I felt I should work with it.
OF ANDY G[oldsworthy]
Of days to make it’s quite high
of pressure—-the challenge was to make that ring of branches withstand
anticipation
and this lasted—-I made this
understood by staying in one place.
Very dark earth that is found in the mountains and
gets on your shoes when you walk in the city.
OF ANDY G[oldsworthy]
Occupy space on the beach [feeling a complete commitment to their success]:
failure is very very important.
Aesthetically awful works—-I hate looking at them.
Never fell down . . . at least when I was
drain up. I need that like I need food.
You may have seen
growing . . . They think they were the devil’s seeds.
OF ANDY G[oldsworthy]
On one hand, rise to the scale of the place.
Of the night, left them on the streets of London.
A terrible press (a lot of snowball fights that evening):
“Andy Goldsworthy said the project was pointless.”
And when I was asked to make work,
“Very violent thing to do to a stone.”
Garden looks . . . It took me a lot of explanation to say . . .
OF ANDY G[oldsworthy]
Of the tree-welds to the stone. There is no hole visible.
First idea was that I should look at the sculpture garden
also looking around the perimeter of the gallery.
Not necessarily
drawn to sunlight,
you can feel in the stone in the place . . .
Go to its origin.
OF ANDY G[oldsworthy]
Of the building—-there was a Japanese garden that had become inappropriate.
Find the pool
again & fill it with clay.
Near to the cracks’
difference, the glass.
You look down there & you see the earth
gallery. So I built a hole & lifted it off the ground.
Barry Alpert
|