I'm a sculptor.
I work directly with the land, working in materials I find in the landscape, whether it be Japan, the North Pole.
But it's the landscape around my home that's the most important to me, and it's that landscape to which I keep returning, and is the place that I can learn most about nature and my relationship with it.
The slate is so much about layering, the way that it's formed.
And when you get a block of slate and slice it up to something, it's so extraordinary seeing this book of stone being revealed, and as you lift one piece off another, how you're looking back in time, really.
With the slate being dry, it has this wonderful capacity to be drawn on - slate against slate.
And I like that between these two things you can produce that.
That, for me, is fascinating.
And that the line is not just drawn on the slate.
It's drawn OUT of the slate.
So it's not as if I've come here with a white crayon and made these lines.
Today, there's obviously a little bit of tension with the weather because this is a dry work, It’s a work made for dry slate, as it is now.
But the weather is showery.
At first, I didn't know whether I was just going to do a line.
I've decided to fill it in somewhat, I think to, um… to balance it up with the solidity of the slate.
And hopefully something will emerge that where the drawing will appear to have more presence than the slate itself, so it sort of floats over the slate.
In all the time that I've worked here, I've never yet managed to make a rain shadow, which is what I do when it rains.So I lay down and the rain wets all around me.
And then I get up leaving a dry shadow where I've laid.
So if it does rain… I will do one of those - probably just here.
It's quite nice laying alongside the work.
So what is causing the disappearance of one work is creating the other.
Well that is rain.
Picking the moment when to get up is always tricky, too.
I think that’s a good time now.
So getting up off the slate is awkward, I don't want to reveal any of it.
My hand is just out a little bit.
That's always the difficulty of making it on a very rough surface.
I like the roughness, but it loses the detail.
It's beginning to dry now around the stones.
It is important to take a chance on a work to see if it succeeds.
There's been so many things that I've told myself that will not… are impossible, but tried anyway and succeeded.
I returned to the slate quarry two days after making the piece there and even though it had rained heavily, the outline of the work was still there.
So I redrew the work, which was wonderful to be able to go back and revive a work that I had been made previously.I like that idea a lot.
Video summary
Artist Andy Goldsworthy talks about and demonstrates how to use natural materials to create artwork in a natural landscape.
Working on site in a quarry, Goldsworthy makes an abstract drawing on slate and shows how a 'rain shadow' can be made on stone during wet weather.
He explores the temporary nature of some landscape artwork and the effects which can be produced there.
This clip is from the BBC series, Bitesize Primary, Art and Design 1, Sculpture on BBC2.
Please note, this film contains an artist visit to a slate quarry and working with sharp materials. We advise teacher review prior to using in your classroom and recommend any outdoors art project is supervised by an adult at all times.
Teacher Notes
- Pupils could brainstorm how to create art in a natural environment and record their ideas.
- Reactions to the temporary element of Andy Goldsworthy's work could be gauged.
- Pupils could be questioned about the idea of one piece of work being washed away by the rain and a rain shadow becoming another piece of work.
- It could also be used as an introduction to a wider topic on Goldsworthy's work in stone and wood.
- Pupils could make some rain shadows and photograph the results.
- The idea of using stone (or slate) to create marks on other hard materials could be experimented with and the idea of reviving a work could also be discussed.
This short film is relevant for teaching Art and Design at KS1 and KS2 in England and Wales and Northern Ireland and first level and second level in Scotland.
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