Welcome Readers,
You may agree that at a certain age in childhood we all have, perhaps, played the rock balancing game or tried to stake rocks in a fix position on top of one another without the use of support and may have called that construction- 'your art', and this activity might have made us somewhat happy also. Or may you have tried to write something on the sand during your visit to the beach and practised how your handwriting looks like!
Though these were the things which were going to fade or washed away in very few moments, still every child enjoyed doing it. The blow of air or tide would creep and wash the written thing away. The lesson, this art which vanishes soon, gives us is almost incomparable. Similarly, Thomas Riedelsheimer's documentary Andy Goldsworthy, a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist designs with the elements of nature, some really beautiful and great art/ sculptures. (He utilizes basically everything that Nature provides him). Along with many other lessons, the major aspect which the documentary provides is-
"THE TRANSITORY NATURE OF ART AND LIFE"
"Art and Life are ephemeral"
-the message which Andy Goldsworthy conveys the viewers in
RIVERS & TIDES
- A documentary film. This blog post is a 'frame study' of the lesson I have learnt from this documentary which is a task assigned by our professor.
Click here to visit the youtube app to see some Rivers and Tides Documentary.
To watch the full documentary, please click on the link below-
Rivers & Tides: Working with Time: Documentary on Art and Life
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"Rivers and Tides depicts the magical relationship between art and nature while painting a visually intoxicating portrait of famed artist Andy Goldsworthy. Gorgeously shot and masterfully edited, the film follows the bohemian free spirit Goldsworthy all over the world as he demonstrates and opens up about his unique creative process. From his long-winding rock walls and icicle sculptures to his interlocking leaf chains and multicoloured pools of flowers, Goldsworthy’s painstakingly intricate masterpieces are made entirely of materials found in Mother Nature–who threatens and often succeeds in destroying his art, sometimes before it is even finished.” (Source) |
At the beginning of the documentary, Andy Goldsworthy tells
"Art, for me, is a form of nourishment"
Andy Goldsworthy
(Riedelsheimer)
to understand the state and the energy within him. One of the prime influences in his work is water, the sea and the river. Growth, time change and the idea of nature seems to be interwoven, nature is not static, it is constantly flowing and Andy focuses on the transientness of nature.
It is said that true enjoyment lies in the process/the journey one undergoes in work and not in the finished product or final destination. This very process comprises of minute and detailed understanding of time, nature, strength, capacity, etc. The very process one undergoes is extremely difficult and it is the focus which brings the best out of mankind. It kind of enlightens the self from within.
"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment."
-M. K. Gandhi
Though the process, the journey may seem difficult the enjoyment is incomparably good and satisfying. The above-mentioned frame slowly moves with art and leads us to the frame which appears like this-
The degeneration of everything urges us to involve ourselves more and more in generating something, it provides constant strength in developing, generating something new, something different with perspectives, with equal interest. The prime thing is that it engages oneself more and more in the process of thinking - it urges to think! Henry Ford truly remarks-
"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it."
This frame suggests the swapping of time or swaying of time from one's hand, the art is created and within no time it is swapped away by the blow of wind, similarly if one has proven his/her self today by doing something remarkable, it gets erased the next day or it is washed away from the memory or say loses its relevance within no time. The way the wind blows away the leaves in 2-3 seconds similarly, the achievement also get faded with time. Nothing is permanent, everything is momentary, transitory. And at the same time, this momentary happiness of the struggle undergone urges- motivates or fills the individual with much strength and confidence to make something more different, more commendable.
"There is a lot to be learnt about time by the river"
Andy Goldsworthy
(Riedelsheimer)
The daily up and down, the tension which one cannot get away from, the struggle, the swapping away of time- good, bad, favourable, unfavourable, etc.
Whenever he shifts to any place-without resting or taking a break, he starts working, he starts feeding his mind with imagination.
"There are always the obsessive thoughts that one cannot get rid off."
Andy Goldsworthy
(Riedelsheimer)
This is a curiously interesting statement. Sometimes it happens that if a thought which occupies our mind, though according to is the thought is a good one or rather an engaging one but the constantness of thought or repetition of only one thought flashing in our mind may lead to obsession, that too that level of obsession which one is not easy to cope with, and this results in two kind of effects- either lead to madness or to productiveness. If it leads to madness, which is a sort of mess than to it Carrie's some really worthy ideas like creating a product by inspiring from that mess.
Furthermore, the sensation of travelling brings dislocation, uprootedness which is what Andy Goldsworthy feels for him.
(Digression) Here, if we try to ponder upon the words and pause for a moment, and think about how this dislocation works in family structures, some social norms of marriage believe or rather say demands a newly wedded bride to be shifted into the groom's house, with the husband's family, this is a sort of dislocation of a woman, and according to Foucault's theory dislocation plays a major role in the inferiority of females within gender dynamics and so they would try to improve their lives by doing hard work to please the male members so as to achieve the equal status.
So, dislocation and uprootedness can be a motivating factor for an individual to harness their abilities in a more efficient way.
This frame of the tide, moving forward suggests the flow of time as time and tide, according to Andy, are compatible with each other. The frame suggests that we are losing time, we are running out of time. William Carlos Williams points out-
"Time is a storm in which we are all lost".
If we cannot hold time, one thing surely we can do is to try to capture it in our work.
Shake hands with the uncomfortably different environment and start working. Good art can keep oneself warm, so as to say in a better condition.
"All that effort is ultimately going into trying to make something that is effortless."
Andy Goldsworthy
(Riedelsheimer)
The potential is everything for the artist who creates the art. The sculpture build in the below frame is the water- the river and the sea made solid!
"The very thing that brings work to life is the thing that will cause it to death."
Andy Goldsworthy
(Riedelsheimer)
Andy fed the motion of the river into a piece of art. The man called it Solomon hole, the art is soon going to be taken away by the tide and will die with the dismantling of its pieces. The art as you can see in the below image is floating in the river. The intact is not the art but the creativity itself. Though being destroyed in front of eyes, it feels like it's being taken off into another plane, taken off into another world or another work.
The feeling is as if the heart of the place is sensed. That's a way of understanding for Andy, he believes Seeing something you never saw before which was always there but you were blind to. There are moments when it is extraordinarily beautiful in a piece of work. And this simply is the best moment to live for.
This moment was a part of the cycle of turning as if the art was going to take another shape in another canvas. The swirling motion of the water in the river becomes a perfect medium that each and everything in this world is constantly in a movement. Nothing is steady and this is one of the lessons to be learnt from this documentary.
Time is a great teacher, it never fails to amaze an individual with strikingly significant and strong lessons. The relentlessness of it lies in the fact that the time, the end is going to be here and there's no scope of getting away from it, so try everything, make everything possible. Further more exploration is necessary, by going out of the comfort zone, one can realise the breathlessly alluring things and the fear of uncertainty helps one to grab it in a creative thing. Andy marks-
"Total control can be the death of our work."
Andy Goldsworthy
(Riedelsheimer)
Sometimes, letting it flow can bring better human experience, unattainable joy.
Sometimes the artist or we encounter a different kind of struggles in our lives, no matter how much of effort we put, no matter how much time have we invested, it always goes in vain but this does not stop us from doing that activity or from pursuing goals, it instead helps in increasing our familiarity about the nature of work with each step. The process, the struggle undergone helps in our determination of giving it a try one more time with a double amount of hard work. The more we try, the more we become clear in our perceptions, abilities and the nature of the effort.
The permanent sculptures or art forms can be considered as the guardian. Those sculptures stand still as if it is protecting, preserving the artfulness of the art.
The creator of the art establishes his whole self in the art and it then becomes more and more important to him. It gives a sense of connectedness for a few moments. And when something overpowers the art form, it generates a sense of the rhythm of change, the ideal state of nature.
The curved lines from the very first frame till the last represents the roundness- the circular nature of nature in depth. 'The world is round' kind of idea, one can hardly come across something which is triangular or square in shape in nature. (the world is either round or shapeless)
"The river is a river of stone, a river of animals, a river of the wind, a river of the water, a river of many things. A river is not dependent on water."
Andy Goldsworthy
(Riedelsheimer)
The significance of flow is more important than the river. The flow is unending.
His art soon gets destroyed before his eyes in just a few seconds with a blow of wind. For a while, it can be felt that hardworking is gone, vanished but in the process lies a beautiful message. If we connect this situation with life, we can obviously agree that life will give certain kind of upheavals, strangely harsh or bizarre issues or other difficulties which seem hard to tackle. This kind of issues optimistically increases our stamina to see life in a different way with different perspectives. This also provides the strength to face some shocks, certain adversities.
Andy's sketch and his communication with trees as mentioned in the below frame.
Land art-
This frame can be interpreted in the way displaying the struggles, hardships of the life of some great leaders and when they face certain challenges, certain societal norms while setting a revolution against the conventional and traditional stereotypical mentality, their thoughts, ideas leave a mark on their culture, society, country and becomes an ideal inspiration for many people.
From another point of view, this frame also presents a deep satire on human life, a mockery on the deeds of people, some may set a benchmark in their fields after facing many adversities but sooner their work will be forgotten by people. No trace will remain after one splash of rain.
What I have learnt from this documentary?
The Life lesson-
All the frames in one or the other way tell that it is the time which sustains us and also at the same time destroys us. It is a continuous process. Like the breath that we take in to give us life, the same breath can take our life also. The food we take help us to sustain our life, the same food can be poisonous- the duality of nature in this art form.
- Our rewards are in the journey and not in the ultimate results.
- Try and try and keep trying; even if you fail and even if trying something which is not going to sustain for a longer time; yet one should keep trying - though this process will at some point of time result into frustration but the thing which this documentary teaches to us to try trying enthusiastically.
- Patience and passion for doing something.
- Detachment from our creation/work. Detachment can be practised with attachment. Unless one doesn't have an attachment to the work, one cannot be detached. The real lesson is to practise to death form the emotional attachment.
- Atrocities to the body- some philosophies/spirituality say that through the atrocities, one can attend the utmost level of detachment- the attachment/detachment idea of 'body and mind' philosophy.
Conclusion-
All the frames suggest the transient nature and at the same time, this kind of art forms - the idea which goes all the way against the art of preservation is remarkably displayed in the documentary. All the sculptures are in a way unique, though they are simply flowing zigzag designs, but the way it can be portrayed or created with help of natural elements like leaves, flowers, rocks, icicles and in a manner of fading art makes this documentary worth watching. The idea of preserving unique objects, sculptures, art, after watching this documentary seemed outdated and urges oneself to try out new every moment, not to rest but to think, not to create replica but to go out of the canon of art to create the real art. And let the creation destroy in front of creator's naked eyes to make believe that everything is transient, so as to recharge the creator/ sculptor's mind in an optimistic way towards a progressive direction. Along with visual striking art, this documentary is a kind of tribute to all the artists.
In short, the documentary is simply beautiful in creating something out of nothing.
References-
Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time. Dir. Thomas Riedelsheimer. Perf. Andy Goldsworthy. Prod. Annedore von Donop. 2003. CD. 11 October 2020.
Click here to read the transcript of the documentary.
Thank You.
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