Arch

By Andy Goldsworthy and David Craig

Book Overview

Renowned for creating art outdoors and from natural materials, British artist Andy Goldsworthy here offers an inside look at an intriguing project. Following the route along which sheep were once driven from Scotland to markets in the north of England, he builds, dismantles, and rebuilds along the way a red sandstone arch.Made of blocks hewn from a Scottish quarry, the arch begins its journey in a dilapidated stone sheepfold. Goldsworthy's color photographs track its progress southward, as it is constructed in the morning and taken down in the evening in a variety of locations, including the site of a vanished stone sheep pen in a town center, in a field high above a six-lane highway, and half in and half out of a stream.Goldsworthy lives near the beginning of the arch's route; writer David Craig lives near its end. He shares Goldsworthy's concern for the history of the land, and his text touches both on the route's ancient origins and on the people who have lived and worked along it. His delightful evocation of the arch's travels and its reception in various communities brings Goldsworthy's project to life.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810919931
• ISBN13: 9780810919938
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.0" x 8.0"
• Grade Range: Grade 8 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

More astonishing art from Andy Goldsworthy

There may be more imaginative artists than Andy Goldsworthy, but I can't think of any who use natural materials in natural settings in such an astonishingly effective manner. In "Arch," Goldsworthy traces--through photographs and a sort of diary--the movement of a sandstone arch through the farmlands of southwestern Scotland (his own "home territory"). This simple arch--a sort of brick-red, roughly hewn curve--is set up and dismantled in all sorts of unlikely places, mostly sheepfolds, along the way. It is photographed and a small entry written about its placement in each particular place. The very first photograph, in Dumfriesshire, shows the arch almost glowing with ruddy color as a threateningly black sky looms overhead. From there, we variously see the arch at the edge of a hauling company's parking lot; in a livestock feedlot; in the middle of a road; with one foot in a narrow stream and the other in a grassy field; and even, wittily, beneath another stone arch which forms the doorway into a barn. In each setting, the arch almost speaks to us. It looks by turns completely at home and relaxed all the way up to shy and out of place. Goldsworthy's great achievement here is to imbue a simple and completely inanimate object with different moods and faces depending upon the setting. The arch becomes almost a Rohrschach test for the reader. Most interesting!

Stimulating Of The Mind

Andy's work is astonishing! He finds beauty and art in every corner of the outdoors. Each of his masterpiece's are unique and stimulating to the mind. I strongly suggest this book and others by him for education and pleasure. You will be amazed!