Andy Goldsworthy's Stone River

Environmental art was discussed in an earlier post and an interesting example of it is Andy Goldsworthy's Stone River. First off, an important distinction to make in environmental art is that certain artists do not consider the damage they might cause to the environment while others create pieces that will not cause any harm. Stone River falls under the latter category. Simply from the title alone, one can see how images of nature are evoked. Goldsworthy comments: "I call it a river, but it's not a river. [The sculpture is] about the flow. There's a sense of movement in the material, through the individual stones, so you just see this line." More than just the flow, this piece also examines natural light. Goldsworthy wanted to create a piece in Northern California where he believes there is "the clearest, brightest and most intense light", which plays into the site-specific nature of this piece. As a result, Goldsworthy believes that to truly understand the piece, it must be examined constantly throughout the day as the sun rises and falls, in order to see how the piece changes with the sun's placements in the sky. Stone River is an interesting piece due to the stark contrast created by its very natural components--sunlight and rock--and its unnatural formation as a wall.