Arch - Hardcover

Goldsworthy, Andy; Craig, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810919931 ISBN 13: 9780810919938

Publisher: Harry N. Abrams, 1999

Synopsis

Renowned for creating art outdoors and from natural materials, British artist Andy Goldsworthy here offers an inside look at one of his most intriguing projects. Beginning in his home territory of southwest Scotland, Goldsworthy traces the ancient routes along which sheep were once driven over the border to markets in England, building, dismantling, and rebuilding along the way a red standstone arch.
Goldsworthy's color photographs record the arch's progress southward, as it is constructed, often in the evening, and taken down early in the morning in a rich variety of locations: on the site of a vanished stone sheep pen in a town center, on land high above a six-lane highway, and half-in and half-out of a stream.
While Andy Goldsworthy lives close to the start of the arch's route, writer David Craig lives near its end. Craig shares with Goldsworthy a deep concern with the history of the land, and his text touches both on its ancient geological origins and on the lives of the people who have lived and worked on it over the centuries. All those interested in Goldsworthy's work will appreciate Craig's evocative account of the arch's travels and its reception in the various communities through which it passes.

About this title

Review:

Tour the English countryside with artist Andy Goldsworthy and writer David Craig, as they trace an ancient drover's route from the sheep pastures of Thornhill, Scotland, to the old market town of Kirkby Lonsdale, England. Goldsworthy, whose natural sculptures are often made up of collections of carefully arranged rocks, has created a self-supporting arch that is assembled with about 30 stones and no mortar. As he and Craig travel the British countryside, they set up and photograph the red sandstone arch in a wide variety of locations. Some sites have changed little over the centuries--on a number of occasions they erect the sculpture in original sheep folds (corrals). In other cases, the arch marks the changing landscape, as in Shap, Cumbria, where it was assembled on a sidewalk across from a relatively new school building.

Documenting this exploration, Arch includes 35 beautiful photographs as well as a poetic day journal written by Craig describing the journey. Looking at the different sites where the arch stood and reading Craig's insight into the geography and history of the land provides a unique opportunity for readers to experience Goldsworthy's work and England's natural history in one sitting. --Loren E. Baldwin

About the Author:

David Craig taught creative writing at the University of Lancaster.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0810919931
• ISBN 13: 9780810919938
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 80