Andy Goldsworthy

Description

Andy Goldsworthy's sandstone arch, made for Sculpture at Goodwood, is one of his largest sculptures in this genre. His first arches were fashioned in ice and compacted snow in the Arctic during a residency with the Inuit Indians in 1989 - others followed in stone, more in ice and some in chalk. Goldsworthy perceives the arch as a way marker, and has made series of them in trails such as A Herd of Arches 1994, his first work at Goodwood, and then later in another part of the grounds A Clearing of Arches. For the Night 1995. Both were of similar scale, like herds of domestic animals walking or grazing.

Arch at Goodwood is made on an altogether grander scale. It strides the famous flint wall, built by prisoners held in Portsmouth during the Napoleonic Wars. These men were put to work by the then Duke of Richmond who considered physical occupation in the open air to be healthier than languishing in crowded prison cells. The contrast between the quarried pink sandstone of the arch and knapped grey flint of the wall contributes to the strong presence of the sculpture. Each footstone of the arch weighs eight tonnes and the overall piece totals 100 tonnes. It is a slow, loping form and firmly links interior and external spaces at Goodwood and, typically, Goldsworthy has used material, form, and placement to great effect.

Arches traditionally mark the passage between one place and another - from the outside world into a walled city, from town to church interior, from danger to safety. A row of arched swords would mark the moment when a bride with her military groom would process into their new life together. There is endless symbolism in the form, rising to its keystone, without which it would fall. Goldsworthy has linked two worlds strangely in his sculpture, as the passage is there only for the flint wall. We are allowed to pass through it but solely on one side or the other.