“…Though Andy Goldsworthy has made enormous and relatively durable works such as those in Grizedale Forest (AR September 1985), some of his sculptures are tiny, even inconspicuous, and the vast majority - like those described above - are ephemeral. For most of us they exist only second hand in photographs. Originals lodge only in the memory of the artist, and maybe of a few fortunate others. Some sculptures are so ephemeral - such as rainbowed splashes, or loose clusters of thrown sticks - that they can be appreciated fully only in a prolonged instant frozen on film.”

— Peter Buchanan, The nature of Andy Goldsworthy, for The Architectural Review

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Andy Goldsworthy, Ice points, held upright in muddy pond bottom, Helbeck, Cumbrial. January 1983

“Crystalline shards of ice, precariously poised beside a pond, form an arch that glistens and sparkles in the sunlight. Soon each face melts, shards slip past each other, and the whole crashes into a chaos of scattered fragments that slowly seep into the earth. On the next day, thin sharp shards project as a cluster of small translucent sails from the cold waters into which they are steadily dissolving. In another season, coloured leaves or petals stuck by spittle form chains or patches of contrasting colours that soon break up as the parts curl up or blow away. A chain of leaves slides slowly over the still surface of a pond, or even floats away in a conga dance on the surface of a stream, casting a shadow that leaps over pebbles and bright winking wave patterns in a self-destructive and frenzied fandango.”

— Peter Buchanan, The nature of Andy Goldsworthy, for The Architectural Review

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Alexander Calder
Hourglass
1941

Amadeo Ferroli
Giuseppe Balbo
1931

Andrea Cascella
Monumento al Pescatore
1987

There’s a peaceful land of maidens crystal-pure,
where children are as unbreakable as steel
where snake-victors kneel and drink
the wine of angels in silent, frozen halls.
 
There’s a peaceful land of grasses
where the dragon sings for eternal hours.
He waits, his wise head bowed,
powerful wings embroidered with flowers.
 
Monks dwell in cells among burgundy rocks.
Fire burns inside their stone bowls.
And the wine of angels can’t been tasted or seen
like tears in a river or in our dead souls.
 
Here no victories or failures prevail.
The scorpion sleeps at the foot of the rhododendron.
And in the window’s light—a sacred darkness,
like writing on a scorpion’s scales.

Natalka Bilotserkivets, from Eccentric Days of Hope and Sorrow, Dzvinia Orlowsky (Ukrainian translation), Lost Horse Press

Ugo Mulas
Jasper Johns
1964

Variations of Incomplete Open Cubes
Sol LeWitt
1974

Joachim Koester
Variation of Incomplete Open Cubes
2011


“Variation of Incomplete Cubes shows a close-up of two hands attempting to form the shape of cubes. The film pays homage to the American minimalist artist Sol LeWitt, whose 1974 work Incomplete Open Cubes explores the permutations of a cube through a variety of sculptures, photographs and drawings.”

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