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December 2003
Rivers and Tides: Working With Time
Documentary Film 2001 about Sculptor Andy Goldsworthy
Wikipedia Info
Directed by Thomas Riedelsheimer
Music by Fred Frith
This film is a documentary about the work of environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy, a sculptor
who uses purely natural, found objects - twigs, branches, stones, icicles, leaves
to create ephemeral pieces. In some cases, the works may not last longer than
a few minutes or hours.
Riedelsheimer's camera follows Goldsworthy for nearly a year as he works on
several projects both large and small, from a flower-filled hollow in a streamside
rock to a massive sinuous wall at Storm King Mountain in New York State. One
piece he attempts is a six-foot cone built of loose flat stones picked up by
the seaside. He carefully positions the stones over a period of some hours.
When the structure suddenly collapses before it's less than half done, the entire
audience for the screening I attended groaned in sympathy. But he succeeds at
last, and we watch as the tide comes in and completely submerges the piece,
which then, hours later, gradually reappears as the tide goes out again. This
doesn't sound like the most exciting sequence in film history, but in truth
it's remarkable -- almost hypnotic.
Goldsworthy can
create the most amazing effects by using leaves of subtly graded colors, or
even blocks of ice. One piece consists of skeins of sheep's wool draped over
a long stone wall near his home. Another is a long "chain" of leaves
tied together by plant fibers and set afloat down a stream. In a world where
most artists are concerned with leaving a legacy of work that will last for
years, Andy Goldsworthy creates art that may not survive the day. As a result,
he documents everything he does through photography, and we get a glimpse of
his enormous photographic archives, mostly 35 mm slides.
This film is
nothing short of inspirational. Goldsworthy himself isn't really a New Age artist,
despite his deep appreciation for nature. As he works, his deep love for his
materials is leading him into a very different relationship with the natural
world than most people have. The rest of us hike through the woods, or camp
out in the back country, or go skiing, but Andy Goldsworthy works with the stones
and branches and flowers and ice around him as they present themselves, without
removing them from their environment. He utilizes natural objects and events
in ways that emphasize the rhythm of the planet's seasons, weather, and growth
patterns, imparting to the viewer unique and sometimes conflicting views of
impermanence and organic cycles. This inherent contrast brings some remarkable
energy to his work. Like all good art, the effect is greater than the sum of
the parts.
Thomas Riedelsheimer
deserves a great deal of credit for some really lovely cinematography. There
are long stretches without any dialog, just the excellent and evocative score
by Fred Frith. Rivers and Tides won't be playing at the local multiplex
anytime soon, but it's doubtless making the rounds of the "art" houses,
and is probably rentable. Search it out—you won't be disappointed.
Recent Raves
Against The Grain: Mad Artist Wallace Wood
Edited by Bhob Stewart
TwoMorrows Publishing 328pp.
Limited Hardcover Edn. $59.95
29 Oct 2003
Amazon Edition (available 2021).
Wikipedia Info: Wally Wood
Reviewers aren't supposed to review their own books, but after all I only contributed one small
article about Wallace Wood (1927-1982) to this encyclopedic volume. Bhob Stewart,
a former Wood assistant, is here ably assisted by Wood's close friend and executor,
Bill Pearson, and art collector and expert Roger Hill, a Sotheby's advisor.
This is the book that was due to be published years ago by a well-known comics
publisher who shall go nameless here. (In fact, my article in the current book
was written for that project.) They sat on it for ten years. Finally, Bhob Stweart
rescued it, updated it and shepherded it into print. And man - is it ever a
little slice of heaven for Wally Wood fans!
I worked as Woody's assistant for several years back in the mid to late 1970s.
For years I had been copying Wood's stuff out of old MAD paperbacks and whatever
comics I could find by him. As might be imagined, getting to work for him was
almost unbelievably exciting. At the same time, there was the dark side of Woody
-- his alcoholism, his terrible business sense, and his disorderly relationships
with his wives. Yet this stubborn, self-absorbed, self-destructive all-too-human
man was one of the sweetest, kindest, most generous people an aspiring artist
could ever hope to meet.
Against the
Grain lays all of this out. The book contains reminiscences about Woody
from most of his former assistants, including Paul Kirchner, Richard Bassford,
Larry Hama and Ralph. There are also pieces by friends and associates ranging
from Realist publisher Paul Krassner (for whom Wood did an infamous semi-obscene
Disney parody), EC colleague Al Williamson, artist Russ Jones, and illustrator
Diane Dillon. Woody himself is represented by excerpts from his letters and
interviews.
But most of all
there is Wood artwork - pages and pages and pages of it, dating back to his
teenage years as an untutored cartoonist wanna-be, through his days at Burne
Hogarth's art school and as a fledgling comic artist, to his tenure as one of
EC's horror and sci-fi stars and as one of the early MAD's Big Three
along with Jack Davis and Will Elder. Plus there is a section of color plates
comprising a number of Wood's cover art for Galaxy magazine, books, and
advertising art. There are also many, many examples of Woody's work for DC and
Marvel comics, and things he did on his own - most notably the project that
he felt summed up his life's work, The Wizard King.
Having been close
to Woody, and having participated in a number of the projects and pages on display
in this volume, it's difficult for me to be fully objective about the book.
Nevertheless, I feel able to say that it represents a labor of love that has
translated into what will doubtless be, for many years to come, the definitive
work about the life and work of Wallace Allan Wood, one of the 20th century's
greatest comic artists. As such, Against the Grain's place as a historical
document seems assured.
In any case, Woody's inspiring art deserves a treasury collection like this. I'm delighted
to see it in print at last.
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