Andy Goldsworth

Bio

Born in 1956, Cheshire England, Goldsworthy is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist producing site-specific sculpture and land art situated in natural and urban settings. He lives and works in Scotland.

Goldsworthy’s  2 modes of  eco-art.

Anthropocentric– natural material in a natural setting organized and constructed into geometric and mathematical order recognizable as human intervention. Site determines the work in all ways but one, form.  The form is the artist’s invention creating the anthropogenic quality not inherent to the natural location.  The work is photographed before it succumbs to the turmoil that is dynamism of life, weather and evolution. Invented beauty that privileges appearance, serves humans manages materials and conditions.

Ecocentric– working with materials to primarily show the dynamic forces that maintain the vitality of ecosystems. Sometimes juxtaposed with human systems such as Snowball in Summer. Discovered beauty considering the welfare of all forms of life, enhances ecosystem functions and involves responsive interaction.

Book works

Soul of a Tree, December 28, 1995 – inverted icicle spiral around a tree trunk

Snowballs in Summer / Glasgow version / Chalk, 1988-1989- snowballs embedded with twigs, seeds, barbed wire and fur. Stored transported and set out to melt during summer in the financial district. Juxtaposed with the human system of work schedules, contracts and economics, creating a dialogue between two time flows: cultural and environmental.

Other interesting work

The strangler Cairn: It is composed of granite blocks shaped together with a strangler fig planted in the top. Over time the roots of the fig should grow down over the cairn. Has gotten some bad press about taxpayer funding.

 

Project #1 Based on Goldsworthy’s Ecocentric Works

Evaporating Views

This project is similar to the Snowball in Summer, in that it incorporates an alternative time perception and a phase shift in water related to environment.  Also similar is the inclusion of original site materials obscured and revealed through material metamorphosis due to environmental influences.

Water (brine) will be collected form the seven (7) saltiest natural sources. Found materials collected at the sites will serve as seeds for crystal formation.

Salinity, g/kg (‰)	Name	Region or Country
474	Don Juan Pond	Antarctica
433	Gaet’ale Pond	Ethiopia
400	Lake Retba	Senegal
350	Lake Vanda	Antarctica
350	Garabogazköl	Turkmenistan
348	Lake Assal	Djibouti
337	Dead Sea	Israel, Jordan

Half-spheres of glass or acrylic of varying in size from 1 liter to 1 Kiloliter will be affixed to interior and exterior office windows in urban centers.  The half spheres will contain collected brine and objects.  A vent will be at the top to allow evaporation and intake of water.

Different size half-sphere will be placed in a way to evoke cosmology.  Some may be place adjacent interior and exterior to complete a sphere with the window in-between.  The differing environments will create differences in the evaporation and mineralization.

It is possible that people could add liquids or matter to the vents.

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Tavaras Strachan

Bio

Strachan was born in 1979 in Nassau, Bahamas. he received a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 2003 and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University in 2006.

He is a contemporary, conceptual artist whose multi-media installations investigate science, technology, mythology, history, and exploration. He lives and works in New York City

Description of work

Strachan questions the boundaries of what was possible and impossible. He creates works that are ambitious in scale and scope and incorporates science, art, the environment, and human relationships. He tries to connect communities with and within his work creating networks that surprise us into reconsidering our relationships on a local and global level. ( paraphrase from Wikipedia)

Book Works

The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want 2004- 2006 Arctic ice in solar powered freezer elementary school in the Bahamas. Prepared the children for the arrival of the 2 ton ice through storytelling, which encouraged, inspired and educated children about personal potential and ecology through an epic quest and personal experience. Often described as absurd due to the hyperextension of excessive effort needed to accomplish.

 “ I admire waste if the stakes are high enough. 200 years ago the word waste did not exist. The word waste is an apocalyptic concept.”

Tavares Strachan: Orthostatic Tolerance/It Might Not Be Such A Bad Idea If I Never Went Home

Other interesting work

Venice Biennale 2013. Bahamas Pavilion, Tavares Strachan

It also included neon and Inuit children singing folklore.

 

Project #2 Based on Strachan’s work

The Depth of our Needs

In the form of epic storytelling and recognition of absurd problem solving abilities, this project has similarities to the stabilization of phase shifting mater found in The Distance Between What We Have and What We Want.  It also highlights solar energy, climate changed, ecology and geothermal dynamics.

The rich history of Prometheus mythology can be used in the educational component of the project, which would be modeled after Strachan’s pre-education introduction model building up to the arrival of the piece of work.

The work would consist of a 1- 2 liter sample of lava from a live geothermal area. The sample would then be maintained or cyclically the heating element of a Stirling engine. The entire unit acts as a solar tracker.

Multiple crucibles including some with holes in the bottom could be rotated and used to let the magma drip through like an hourglass.