Andy Goldsworthy's The Owl Has Flown

Try to fathom the idea that an artist could a take stroll in the woods, along a riverbank, down a beach, and with no tools at all – no paint brushes, no sculptor’s chisels or knives, no canvases or pedestals or quarried granite or polished wood – manage to create absolutely beautiful art from the objects and materials he finds by chance. That person is Andy Goldsworthy, a sculptor that uses nature to create masterpiece. In some way, Goldsworthy’s work in Rivers and Tides relates to Sven Birkerts’ notion of deep time and vertical thinking.

First, in “The Owl has Flown” Sven Birkerts says “As we now find ourselves at a cultural watershed-as the fundamental process of transmitting information is shifting from mechanical to circuit-driven, from page to

screen,-it may be time to ask how modifications in our way of reading may impinge upon our mental life.

For how we receive information bears vitally on the ways we experience and interpret reality” (Birkerts31). He explains how vitally important reading and thinking is. Plus, he mentions how we are shifting from vertical to horizontal reading. Vertical reading is someone who reads about a topic thoroughly and gains a lot of information. To simplify, Birkerts wants everyone to think vertically in everyday life and Andy Goldsworthy seems to agree with him and Goldsworthy‘s vertical thinking is shown when he is creating his arts. In the movie “Rivers and Tides” Goldsworthy shows that an art is meant to be ephemeral. In other words, a piece of art will destroy in a time period. Considering Andy Goldsworthy’s work we’ll just assume that it decays, just because he works with things already in the immediate environment around him and it looks like, yes because of that factor it must. What Andy Goldsworthy was talking about in stating that “the very thing that brings it to life causes its death” is this idea that when something in the environment decays, another one of its kind is produced from that decay. Examples I guess could be a tree rotting into the soil, only to have that soil give birth to a new tree, or

how water can shape shift form from ice to water again. It makes sense if you think about it because, yes the very thing that created this icicle, water, is what will destroy this icicle. For, if you put an icicle in a vat of water I am sure the end result will just be a vat of water, no traces of the icicle would remain. The connection between the ephemeral art and life is that we realize that life is not eternal. Goldsworthy not only talks about the shapes and sizes of his sculptures, he relates his sculptures with real life circumstances. Therefore, we can see that Goldsworthy’s work relates to Birkerts concept of thinking vertically.
Furthermore, in “The Owl has Flown” Birkerts says “Resonance-there is no wisdom without it. Resonance is a natural phenomenon; the shadow of import alongside the body of the fact, and it cannot flourish except in deep time” (Birkerts35). Deep time define as one who loses sense of time when he or she is too focused on single thing without anything else on mind. This deep time theory is also shown by Andy Goldsworthy in “Rivers and Tides”. The sculptor doesn't think in terms of success or failure. For example, after he has spent many hours constructing an intricate mobile of twigs and thorns, the wind shifts and the piece collapses. Goldsworthy surveys the wreckage and practices equanimity. He seems to know that sometimes the magic works and sometimes it doesn't. What's important is that the creative process itself has been manifested along with an intimate meeting with "the heart of the place." Nothing is ever lost in the universe. There is always something to be cherished in this kind of environmental art. Although he has been working with his arts for hours, he did not give up. Rather, he is still enjoying working with his arts. How he gain such energy to continue with his work after hours and hours of work? The answer is deep time. Goldsworthy loses his sense of time, because he is really focused in making his masterpiece.
In conclusion, Goldsworthy’s arts certainly bring people close to nature. We usually see what we expected to see and with that, it makes us tend to overlook most things in life. With Goldsworthy’s beautiful pieces, he did a wonderful work by manipulating nature in a very creative and attractive way which gives each of us a different thought about those arts. Plus, we will also look those masterpieces in many perspectives and relate them to our life. Most importantly, we learn to think vertically and go into deep time in things that we want.