Andy Goldsworthy
Herd of Arches
1994
Description
The quarry at Gatelawbridge in Dumfriesshire was the site of a work which is illustrated in Stone by Andy Goldsworthy (Viking/Penguin Books, 1994) under the inscription:
Out of the quarry
- seven arches
- made over two days
- no failures
- one almost fell
- slipped down the face of a rock
- as I removed supporting stones
This was the first manifestation of the sandstone arches, made entirely in the spirit of Goldsworthy's practice of using materials in their place of origin. The stone from this quarry was used in the construction of major eighteenth- and nineteenth-century buildings which make up much of Glasgow, the distinct pink colour lending warmth to the northern townscape.
This notion of movement found its way into Herd of Arches, a group which seems to have wandered in search of a new location. Sited by Andy Goldsworthy and Joe Smith at Hat Hill Copse, the Arches are placed along a pathway winding between fairly dense trees, against a dark green ground-cover of ivy. Here the colour contrast between the red stone and the green ground lends a strong dynamic to the piece, which first emerged against its own colour in the rough waste ground of the quarry.
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