Andy Goldsworthy's Rivers and Tides

2001, Art and Artists  -   35 Comments
7.58
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Ratings: 7.58/10 from 64 users.

Andy Goldsworthy’s Rivers & Tides (2001)Documentarian Thomas Riedelsheimer shows us Andy Goldsworthy as he creates art in natural settings using natural materials such as driftwood, ice, mud, leaves, and stones. Goldsworthy comments on his "earthworks" and occasionally responds to off screen questions from Riedelsheimer while he painstakingly builds his outdoors sculptures. With some exceptions, such as a winding stone wall that he built in Mountainville, NY, Goldsworthy's creations are intentionally mutable works.

We see how several of them fall apart, melt, or drift away due to exposure to the elements; we also see, for example, a complex structure of interconnected sticks collapse while Goldsworthy is still working on it.

Riedelsheimer takes us to Goldsworthy's home in Penport, Scotland, and to a French museum, but the emphasis of the film is on observing Goldsworthy at work.

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35 Comments / User Reviews

  1. woofer

    wow. just wow. it makes you look at nature differently.

  2. woofer

    5 minutes in, and i don't know what to think. it's strangely satisfying. will update later

  3. ThatDankMemeer

    Gr8 f1lm, w0u1d r3c0mm3nd.

  4. Alison

    I love most of the works. The stone eggs are amazing, the icicle sculptures, the leaves posed just so - really amazing. But watching this has taught me more about his works and I have to say I don't like the wall around the trees - it feels too imposing on the landscape. and ungenerous to the trees. Equally the colouring of a stream red using iron from stones found in the stream bed is pretty - but iron can be quite toxic to creatures living in the water, so that's a no-no really.
    Mixed feelings now.

  5. Irit

    According to IMDB it is an hour and a half movie. But your version seems to be only 45 minutes?

    1. Alison

      part 2 is available - it's on the right

  6. 1concept1

    I have watched this so many times - He has a good book out, "Andy Goldsworthy. A Collaboration With Nature", (55.00, US), I picked it up in a used book store for 20. - I'll watch it forever - It gets better each time - He is such a pleasant person -

  7. TrampVamp .

    Fabulous I wish I could live my life a little more like he does

  8. oQ

    how the hell did i skip this one before...extraordinairy!

    A good attachement to Light Darkness and Colors
    1i

    1. Pysmythe

      Uh, oh, what's that?! Looks like I've got one to watch.

    2. oQ

      i'll admit i didn't get to watch the whole doc. I wrote my comment while in the first 25 minutes and then friends arrived, computer was turned off, wine was opened and that was the end of that.
      Will get back to it later tonight.
      How was it? lol
      1i

    3. Pysmythe

      Just sat down to it, but I may have to split it into parts, too, as it's Saturday (yardwork).
      Back later.

    4. Pysmythe

      Well, I'm now 26 minutes in, so, what the hell, I'll give you the chief impression I've got so far, lol.
      To me, there seems to be a clear analogy between his materials and all the recycled atoms that comprise a person. They are both gathered together, made to work together, briefly, to make some kind of an impact on their environment, before natural forces make them vanish, or change them into something else. It also seems to actually minimize the role of the artist, in that he isn't striving for the personal permanence of his creations, but by the ephemeral nature of them is alluding to something bigger than that.

    5. Pysmythe

      He's a bit like a lonely child perpetually building sandcastles on the beach, isn't he?

    6. oQ

      Been busy like a bee...but tonight quiet night at home watching this doc...decided not to move anymore...my landlord is very happy even lowering my rent by 100.
      less stress more room for love!
      1i

    7. Pysmythe

      Glad to hear about your rent improvement. And your daughter's not too far away, anyway, I guess. So it's all good.

      I've watched another 20 minutes of it, but I've been pretty sick the last two days (diverticulitis again, doc wanted to hospitalize me, too, but I said no). If I feel up to it, I'll probably finish it tonight or tomorrow.
      edit- meds are making me really nauseated... ugh...

    8. oQ

      Not sure if i should give a like for you being able to write at least or a dislike for the situation but no matter which...thinking of you.
      Get well, will write soon...did you get the pics?
      1i

    9. Pysmythe

      Thanks. :)
      Yeah, I just checked, I got the pics. Getting ready to go look at them now. I'll write you a note from there.

    10. dewflirt

      One with a troublesome foot that itches to kick and run :)

    11. Pysmythe

      lolol. Alright... So I'll scale back on the kookiness a little bit. :) I've been getting too artsy-fartsy and full of myself lately.

    12. dewflirt

      Not at all, come to think of it there is something of the muddler about him :)

    13. Pysmythe

      Well, what I said being true, anyway (lol), yes, I suppose I could see that about him. He sure does like to stack rocks, doesn't he? To be honest with you, I'm having a hard time seeing the intrinsic value in what he's doing artistically beyond what I take is the symbolic intent, about which I may even be entirely wrong, from his point of view. But, like I said, I didn't finish watching it yet. I do love that he loves the water, however, and works with it; I've long loved the ocean, which I spent every summer of my childhood in and on. The best sound in the world is the sound of a breaking wave.

    14. dewflirt

      One of nature's rock stackers I guess ;) I never like to be told what an artists intent is, I don't want them to influence my relationship with their work. If the piece doesn't tell you what it's about, tell it ;)

    15. Pysmythe

      Yep, that's what I've been trying to do so far. Probably the whole point is just simple beauty amid nature's immense beauty...
      Yeah, I'll go with that.

  9. lovewanta@gmail.com

    Dear Igor, Build a stone wall. Just a small one. Then there will no longer be any need to comment. Only a lesson to carry you forward.

  10. igor

    it all looks very nice, it would´ve been more fair though if he would show us he is using concrete in the end to make those stones stick together, as he did. fake artist

    1. Ger Dowling

      What makes you think he used concrete? Have you got any proof?

    2. DigiWongaDude

      Living in Scotland, I know that your comment is not true. Look up dry stone walling/diking. It's a dying trade unfortunately, but Scotland is littered with examples everywhere. Really sad to throw this out with such dismissive remarks. It sounds like you have been misled once too many or something?

  11. Simone Domenichini

    A real artist. The documentary is slow and reflects the personality af the artist and help to discover and see the making of

  12. Ashley Rowe

    A truly inspirational insight into how nature influences art, or simply how someone harmonises with their surroundings. Going back to nature, observing it's passing, reminds me of my childhood, and saddens me to think that society slowly has driven us inwards into controlled parklife, reducing our contact with what is simply part of ourselves. Goldsworthy's video is a simple gift, he himself is a man following his heart and instincts. I bought this documentary, such was its impact on me. One to have and to hold and share with anyone who will listen.

  13. canadada

    Amazing film. Goldsworthy's sense of 'natural' Time is refreshing.

  14. Epicurean_Logic

    @tamar, good idea

    go to 'contacts' at the top of the homepage and email Vlatko directly with your request. Also recommend some good literary docs to him if you know of any dood ones.

  15. tamar kuchuashvili

    could you pease add special category in your documentary films called literature? it would be nice for literates to find farther information about the writers and literary writing systems, also the new activities in modern literature.

  16. Damn Yankee

    Thanks Vlatko! This has proved a very useful resource for my Postmodernist paper. Keep up the good work :)

  17. robe33

    The sound is fantastic,seems interesting work but the image is to good.