Quote

As with all my work, whether it's a leaf on a rock or ice on a rock, I'm trying to get beneath the surface appearance of things. Working the surface of a stone is an attempt to understand the internal energy of the stone.

Andy Goldsworthy

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Andy Goldsworthy
Age: 68
Born: 1956
Born: July 25
Artist
Environmental Artist
Environmentalist
Land Artist
Photographer
Sculptor
County Palatine of Chester
Andi Gōruzuwājī
Andrew Goldsworthy
Whether
Stone
Understand
Attempt
Energy
Appearance
Leafs
Trying
Surface
Leaf
Work
Stones
Internals
Things
Rock
Internal
Rocks
Ice
Working
Beneath

More quotes by Andy Goldsworthy

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My sculpture can last for days or a few seconds - what is important to me is the experience of making. I leave all my work outside and often return to watch it decay.
Andy Goldsworthy
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Winter makes a bridge between one year and another and, in this case, one century and the next.
Andy Goldsworthy
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I think that I'm always trying to get beyond the surface appearance of things, to go beyond what I can just see.
Andy Goldsworthy
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Understanding the materials I work with... gives me a deeper understanding of my place. And it's helped me make sense of the changes that are happening to me as I grow older.
Andy Goldsworthy
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I love the winter. Well, I love all the seasons, but the winter is possibly one of the most intense.
Andy Goldsworthy
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The things that I make are that which a person will make. They're not meant to mimic nature. They are nothing but the result of a hand of a person.
Andy Goldsworthy
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I just see myself as an object in the final image. I know I'm experiencing it when I'm there working on it. I'm there to be worked with, as anything else that I work with.
Andy Goldsworthy
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The main reason I went to digital was because I got time-lapse, video, and still images all in one camera. Having a minimal amount of gear is really important for someone who wants to walk around. That allowed me to have this flexibility to document things in different ways.
Andy Goldsworthy
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The reason why the stone is red is its iron content, which is also why our blood is red.
Andy Goldsworthy
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I'm dealing with the most important things there are: life and nature. If this doesn't work, if this doesn't sustain me, I can't go back to nature. I'm right there. There's nowhere to go, and that frightens me.
Andy Goldsworthy
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Even in winter an isolated patch of snow has a special quality.
Andy Goldsworthy
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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.
Andy Goldsworthy
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There's a huge number of things that are occurring with the ice works which fascinate me enormously, but it's driven by this kind of frantic race against time. And whilst that creates a huge amount of tension and problems, it's a tension that I think I feed off.
Andy Goldsworthy
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The stones tear like flesh, rather than breaking. Although what happens is violent, it is a violence that is in stone. A tear is more unnerving than a break.
Andy Goldsworthy
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I go way beyond just the wood and stone but to the process of growth and farming and the tensions between the two.
Andy Goldsworthy
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Ideas must be put to the test. That's why we make things otherwise they would be no more than ideas. There is often a huge difference between an idea and its realization. I've had what I thought were great ideas that just didn't work.
Andy Goldsworthy
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If you lay in the rain, every rain shower, storm, whatever, is different. Every surface is different.
Andy Goldsworthy
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Fire is the origin of stone.By working the stone with heat, I am returning it to its source.
Andy Goldsworthy
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I can't edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature as a whole.
Andy Goldsworthy
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If I'm going to understand the land, I have to understand the wind, the snow, the rain, the leaves, the ice, and changes in temperature. It just reflects a reality for me.
Andy Goldsworthy