Andy Goldsworthy SoVA Assignment

WHAT AND WHY: After learning about Andy Goldsworthy and his nature-oriented artworks, we were tasked with an assignment to actually produce an artwork similar to Goldsworthy's. Here are some pictures which Xinyu took (I got her permission :D).

Artwork beginning to take shape.

The End Product (2012)
Mixed Media: Pens, Correction Tape pens, Rulers, Markers

HOW: We attempted to create something similar to Stick Hole, by Andy Goldsworthy. Our structure was assembled with ready-mades, drawing influence from Dadaism. We used a green tea bottle to leave a circular space in the middle, drawing from Goldsworthy's use of positive-negative space. Challenges came because of the smoothness and the varying thicknesses and lengths of the different stationery. This caused some pens to slide over others if you just touched any one of them in the slightest bit. I think this emphasises on the fragility of our artwork and its ephemeral nature. Just like Andy Goldsworthy's artworks, ours cannot be left there on the table forever; other people have to use the place; the stationery had to be kept back into our pencilcases for our use in the many other classes and exams that await us in the future...


Was it successful?: The end product of our efforts resembles a natural structure - the birds' nest.  Goldsworthy employed a clear background with symmetrical composition in his work, bringing across the balanced serenity of nature. On the other hand, our structure is assymetrical against a similarly clear background. I think our use of ready-mades quite contradicts with Goldsworthy's purpose of assembling his artworks, which was to advocate for greater environmental sensibility. Ready-mades are manufactured items, meaning urbanization and factories. As we learn in Integrated Humanities, urbanization (a process) and factories (an agent) are both contributors to environmental degradation. I thus feel that our artwork is more of an irony, whereas Goldsworthy's was more of an earnest artistic expression. I say irony because we used ready-mades, symbols of urbanization (which contributes to environmental degradation), to form the natural primitive shape of a birds' nest. It may not be as beautiful, but it certainly is more shocking.

I think that some good points of our artwork is that it is more vibrant, different coloured pens being a more striking subject matter than the dark brown of twigs. I also value the sense of irony employed in our artwork. However this sense of irony may make us seem like we are mocking Goldsworthy's work. May I refute that thought if it is running through the reader's mind right now. Representing a similar artwork of Andy Goldsworthy's in different medium and composition is more of a matter of exercising our artistic creativity. :) This opportunity for artistic expression was helpful to explore our own ideas about nature and the world. The irony was to bring out the double-sided-ness of things; people are advocating for more care about environmental issues but on the other hand you see others totally disregarding these efforts. I feel that this blatant disregard was summed up in the irony of our artwork.

Points for Improvement: I think perhaps we could have used medium which was thinner. The thickness of the pens resulted in the circular shape in the middle not being able to form properly. Hence the circle appears more angular than it should. The directional lines we used are kind of pointing all over the place, with some stray pens sticking out, perhaps more than they should. We could have made the circle wider hence solving the problem of the circle not being able to form properly with our chosen medium. We could have used a greater number of pens and covered up any gaps in the ring of stationery by adding more stacks of stationery above it, to achieve greater positive-negative contrast.