Quote

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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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
Promise
Unnerving
Tears
Tear
Violence
Breaking
Break
Stone
Rather
Violent
Artist
Flesh
Happens
Although
Like
Stones

More quotes by Andy Goldsworthy

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When I do the permanent projects or the big projects, when a work is finished, that's the beginning of its life.
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.
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Once the fired stone is out of the kiln, it is still possible to mentally reconstruct it in its original form.
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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I am not a performer but occasionally I deliberately work in a public context. Some sculptures need the movement of people around them to work.
Andy Goldsworthy
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People do not realise that many of my works are done in urban places. I was brought up on the edge of Leeds, five miles from the city centre-on one side were fields and on the other, the city.
Andy Goldsworthy
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My work comes first, reasons for it follow.
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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Three or four stones in one firing will all react differently. I try to achieve a balance between those that haven't progressed enough and those about to go too far.
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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The hardened mass of liquid stones had much stronger qualities than those which had simply torn. The skin remained a recognisable part of the molten stone.
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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If you've ever come across a tree that you've lived with for many years and then one day it's blown over, there's incredible shock and violence about that.
Andy Goldsworthy
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A lot of my work is like picking potatoes you have to get into the rhythm of it. It is different than patience. It is not thinking. It is working with the rhythm.
Andy Goldsworthy
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My art is an attempt to reach beyond the surface appearance. I want to see growth in wood, time in stone, nature in a city, and I do not mean its parks but a deeper understanding that a city is nature too-the ground upon which it is built, the stone with which it is made.
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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The underlying tension of a lot of my art is to try and look through the surface appearance of things. Inevitably, one way of getting beneath the surface is to introduce a hole, a window into what lies below.
Andy Goldsworthy
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It's art that's taught me to think and to write.
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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I'm cautious about using fire. It can become theatrical. I am interested in the heat, not the flames.
Andy Goldsworthy