Saturday, April 14, 2018

Appropriate setting.



I purposely tried to take all the photos of Goldsworthy's wall at Storm King Art Center without other sculptures in the view. Mark Di Suvero's I-beam structure 'Pyramidian' seen in the upper right, off in the distance, ended up in this picture.

It is made pretty clear in anything you read about the sculpture park that all the art has been carefully chosen, and even if it is not created on sight, is still placed with the utmost attention as to how it 'fits' into the land.

Before he began Goldsworthy tells us he walked the property for several days until he started to get a vision of what kind of installation could be introduced to the landscape.  He studied the lay of the land. He surveyed the materials that were available. He appreciated how that material was used on the property in the past. The remnants of old stone walls were there. He noticed how those walls  dissolved over time and were swallowed up by the trees and absorbed into the ground.  What he saw appealed to his sensibilities. .

His artistic concept was to explore a new sympathetic line of wall, taking into account the mature trees and changes that had happened to the land over many years. The stones that were there, along with similar stones brought in from surrounding area, he and his men crafted and coaxed into what became the 'meandering wall' which becomes an artistic statement that, at the very least, alludes to the supposition that art can compliment, and enhance, (and shouldn't unnecessarily 'contradict')  its surroundings. 

If it these qualities of harmony are not evident in the choice (and situating) of the artwork, there ought to be a really good reason for it. 


Pyramidian