Monday, May 21, 2007
sticks and stones
Yesterday I saw part of a great documentary called "Being Here - The Art of Dan Horgan" on Californian gardener, landscape designer, artist Dan Horgan. Horgan responds to the landscape by making cairns and drystone sculptures from local rock, sticks, stones and sand. He creates sensitive, beautiful, ephemeral works. One scene of the documentary showed a beautiful silvery green olive grove planted years earlier. His work is similar to the work of Andy Goldsworthy.
I love the way these two men draw attention to the rugged untamed landscape by creating a man-made object. These sculptures respond so directly to their materials and over time gradually , or violently erode leaving ....the landscape.
Over the years I have been very inspired by Andy Goldsworthy and in fact the "Nest " series of bowls that I wrote about in the previous blog were partly inspired by Goldsworthy's "Midsummer Snowballs"
I loved everything about this project from the collecting of snow in the deepest winter and creating huge snowballs filled with rocks, wool, and sticks through to transporting the huge snowballs to a frozen food factory which was the only place big enough to store them until midsummer! Eventually these snowballs ended up on the streets of London and I love the stories of what happened to them, one got kicked to bits by drunks, one was in the way of stall holders at the Spitalfields markets and was gently lifted from place to place until it disapeared.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Have to agree - I just wanted to run down to the beach and collect and build. Christopher and I were entranced - Mum and son fixed on the screen with grandson quite oblivious playing around my feet. I think we both felt such a sense of peace and calm in his work - the gentle healing of his inner self creating the most beautiful pieces.
YES!! To watch Andy working, is to look at somebody totally BEING himself. Above all, the pieces that disappear after a few moments, days or weeks: they remind me of the buddhist's sand-mandalas: DOING is important, not remaining or having.
It's beautiful, fragile, peaceful...
I missed the beginning of this superb and inspirational documentary. Haven't been able to find out what difficulties Horgan faced in his earlier life. Can anyone enlighten me?
What a phenomenal man. I missed the start also. Lets hope they run the doco again
Oh how freaking cool! Awesome post dude. I love it.
Post a Comment