Ephemeral marks and landscape connections

An exhibition of land artist Andy Goldsworthy is currently on show at the National Galleries in Edinburgh, Scotland. Aged 69, his work spans 50 years of making marks in the landscape, rarely permanent and always using natural materials: leaves, twigs, clay, stones, icicles. The exhibition showcases some artpieces created deliberately for the event, but mostly his work is recorded in photographs and occasionally film (“my way of talking” AG).

I’ve never seen his work at first hand but what I gained from visiting this exhibition is his creative interaction with nature, often playful, but underlain with the spiritual significance of the visible decay of materials. His preoccupation is with temporality. One video I watched showed the creation of ripples in a pond, forever changing but remaining concentric in form. Another video had me mesmorised for half an hour until eventually Andy emerged from under the swaying seaweed as the tide inexorably came in. Interpretation? Possibly a mischievous tease or maybe referencing the dominance and acceptance of nature’s rhythms.

The connection between land art and landscape architecture lies in their shared engagement with the land itself in four dimensions, but they approach it from different — yet overlapping — perspectives: one artistic, the other design-oriented and functional.

Below are some photos I took of exhibits and prints. Exhibition website: https://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/andy-goldsworthy-fifty-years Video introduction: https://youtu.be/IvLsCL4ChYA

Bob Moore