Waiting for No One

isappointing. That's the only word for the Andy Goldsworthy exhibition at Tatton Park. Goldsworthy was born in Cheshire, so it makes sense that he should play such a large part of the estate's art and landscape project called "oneplace". In my opinion, however, the exhibition does the local man few favours.

Goldsworthy created six pieces at Tatton during November last year, using ice, wood and leaves. Display boards in the centre of the small room show some photographs taken at various stages of construction, while a short film in a nearby room shows Goldsworthy at work, collecting sheets of ice from the pond and assembling some of the pieces.

This meagre offering is supplemented on the walls and in display cases by about twenty large photographs of other work covering the years 1982 to 2005. The small number of images with no coherent theme and taken over such a wide timespan suggests that they have been variously begged, scrounged, found under cushions and otherwise scraped together.

All of the work, both old and new, is temporary and outdoors, and ranges from the intruiging and enigmatic to the downright hauntingly beautiful. An essential part of each piece, however, is its relationship to its surroundings. The effects of light and wind will change frequently and rapidly, while the work itself will change as it gradually melts or disintegrates.

How, then, can Goldsworthy's work be adequately represented by one, or at best two, photographs?

"Each work grows, stays, decays - integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its height, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expressed in the image. Process and decay are implicit." - Andy Goldsworthy

I don't know when Goldsworthy said that, but I'm not convinced by it. It sounds to me like justification after the fact from the days when video recording was ludicrously expensive. (Sculptures that last a long time would also require repeat visits.)

If so, the film at the Tatton Park exhibition contradicts it. Watching the artist at work is interesting but it's such a shame they didn't go that little bit further and record the work after completion. Apparently, Goldsworthy gave a talk at Tatton Park on 24th January. I wish I'd known about the event and asked him about this.

(A DVD called Time and Tide was released in 2004, but it's a Region 1 disc and in NTSC format, which isn't compatible with most televisions in this country.)

Despite my criticisms, I'm glad I went to the exhibition. It reminded me how much I like Goldsworhty's work, it stimulated me to think in new ways, and it gave me ideas for several multimedia projects of my own.