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On September 17, 2003 Andy Goldsworthy's first permanent commission in New York City, Garden of Stones, opened to the public. Garden of Stones, an eloquent garden plan of trees growing from stone, is Goldsworthy's design for the Memorial Garden, an outdoor space that is a central feature of the Museum's Robert M. Morgenthau Wing. The garden was commissioned by the Museum and organized by the Public Art Fund. Visiting Hours Garden of Stones is open Sunday through Friday during the Museum's regular visiting hours. Click here for detailed directions. Admission to the Garden is free to the public Garden of Stones reflects the inherent tension between the ephemeral and the timeless, between young and old, and between the unyielding and the pliable. More importantly, it demonstrates how elements of nature can survive in seemingly impossible places. In Jewish tradition, stones are often placed on graves as a sign of remembrance. Here, Goldsworthy brings stone and trees together as a representation of life cycles intertwined. As a living memorial, the garden is a tribute to the hardship, struggle, tenacity, and survival experienced by those who endured the Holocaust. This contemplative space, meant to be revisited and experienced differently over time as the garden matures, is visible from almost every floor of the Museum. The effect of time on humans and nature, a key factor in Goldsworthy's work, is richly present in Garden of Stones, as the sculpture will be viewed, as well as cared for, by future generations. Most of the boulders he selected had been removed from nearby farmlands hundreds of years ago, something that appealed to Goldsworthy since there was a tradition of human involvement with the stone. "My working of the stones is a continuation of the journey these stones have made. They have a history of movement, struggle, and change which I hope will resonate with the garden." He chose to include eighteen boulders in part because of the number's symbolic significance: In Hebrew every letter also possesses a number value. Chai, whose number value is 18, is the Hebrew word for life, and is known to many in the traditional toast "L'chaim" - to life! In all of Goldsworthy's works, the process of selecting and becoming familiar with the natural materials he uses is a key element of the work itself. For Garden of Stones, he researched several different methods of hollowing the stones, including coring, water jet cutting, and burning with a flame torch. "I rarely repeat a work twice, so each work is a step into the unknown," he has said. He chose the flame torch method, in part because it was the most efficient, but also because granite is a fire-formed stone: Goldsworthy saw an affinity between the way the stone came into being and the way in which it became part of Garden of Stones. This spectacular technique melted away the interior of the stones, transforming solid granite into molten liquid. For the trees, Goldsworthy selected a species of dwarf oak, Quercus prinoides. The trees will begin as small saplings, and over the course of decades will grow to be around 12 feet tall. "Amidst the mass of stone the trees will appear as fragile, vulnerable flickers of life - an expression of hope for the future. The stones are not mere containers. The partnership between tree and stone will be stronger for having grown from the stone." Andy Goldsworthy was born in Cheshire, England in 1956. Since the 1970s, he has been making sculptures and installations with and about nature. Solo museum exhibitions of his work have been held in the Setagaya Art Museum, Japan (1994); the Barbican Centre, London (2000); Site Santa Fe, New Mexico (2000); the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2002); and elsewhere around the world. His other major permanent commissions in the United States include Storm King Wall (1995-97) at Storm King Art Center, River (2000) at Stanford University, and Three Cairns (2002) at the Des Moines Art Center. Andy Goldsworthy was the subject of the award-winning documentary by Thomas Riesshleimer, Rivers and Tides. In New York he is represented by Galerie Lelong.
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Copyright 2003, Museum of Jewish Heritage. All rights reserved. |
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