Andy Goldsworthy: Drawing with the world

Ceca Georgieva

It snowed over the weekend and of course everyone went out to play and the park was littered with attempts at snowmen, rolling snow balls and all sorts of attempted snow and ice structures from igloos to slides. Someone had even begun 'planting' twigs in rows, mimicking the spring growth to come, the snow triggering peoples creativity and need to have inventive fun, especially in a time of lockdown. As I walked back home I was reminded of Andy Goldsworthy, an artist that has taken that spirit of play and elevated it into an art, someone that began their career very locally and who was actually rejected from the foundation course at Leeds and so had to go to Bradford; I'm so glad his early experience of rejection didn't put him off, I hope it just strengthened his resolve. I see his work as drawing rather than sculpture, but at the end of the day the difference doesn't really matter. For me, he sees lines and shapes in nature and emphasises these by making them a photographic reality. The image above is actually by the Bulgarian artist Ceca Georgieva, who also uses the things she finds in nature as her drawing materials, in fact I initially made a mistake and thought the work was by Goldsworthy, an issue that is actually very serious, as I do understand the pain of having your own work labelled as someone else's, so I must apologise. In Georgieva's work, if you stand in a certain position, you can see two trees that have grown away from each other, so that they can give room for sunlight to illuminate their leaves evenly. This creates two diverging lines, that in turn creates a space between them and she fills that space with snowballs and photographs the result. The process is very straightforward, but at the same time conceptually beautiful. 

Andy Goldsworthy

In the image above Goldsworthy reverses the trick, this time it's found sticks that fabricate a drawing of wonky geometric forms. There is a playful illusion of three dimensional solidity, an illusion that causes this artwork to hover between being a series of objects and a line drawing. I heard him speak once and it was probably his sense of playfulness that came over most powerfully. Give him some time outside and he will find visual potential in something, all he has to do is move things around a little and he will reveal all sorts of possibilities. In one photograph in particular where he simply throws a few sticks up into the air, you also realise how important the camera is to his work, without it all those decisive moments would go undocumented. So why not just go out and play and take your camera with you just in case. 

Hazel stick throw: Goldsworthy

See also:

Some Goldsworthy drawing

More drawing using three dimensional materials

More traditional approaches to landscape

About Ceca Georgieva