Director Thomas Riedelscheimer presents a documentary about the globally celebrated, award winning artist Andy Goldsworthy, the man known for creating unique work that combines materials from everyday surroundings.
Director: Thomas Riedelsheimer
Starring: Andy Goldsworthy, Holly Goldsworthy
Running time: 97 mins
Nature is there all the time. Plants grow, life lives, rocks are created, and then the death of it all makes new life. But what if there was an aspect that, although rarely explored, recreated the fascination with nature we conjure when walking through the park, or that we had when we climbed trees as children? Well, Thomas Riedelsheimer directs a wonderful film about the globally celebrated artist Andy Goldsworthy, the man who explores just that.
Goldsworthy predominantly creates art in natural environments or with natural materials. On the surface, Goldsworthy’s art often taps into one’s emotions of wonder and amazement. You wonder how twigs and leaves are capable of doing such things, and you want to know how things are done like it is some kind of magic trick.
Goldsworthy has been fascinated with the outdoors for most of his life, but he realises that “nature is there all the time”. He believes that there is barely a difference in creating things out of nature than not. He is natural, his resources are natural, but he creates work that compliments and highlights the complexities not only of nature, but of life itself.
Some of his sculptures are comparatively small, intricate and meticulously created, and yet thoroughly fragile. Some of his work is simply erased by the blowing of the wind. Now, you could say that he should just make these sculptures when it’s not windy. But it’s not just the outcome of a piece, but an exploration of the relationship man and nature have. His art is made with and inside nature, so it would be a disservice to himself and the world if his work couldn’t be destroyed by nature at any time as well. Plus, even if by accident, some of his work is merely created for his eyes only if it is destined to collapse then as well.
However, some of his work lasts for days, weeks, or years, demonstrated through some time lapses of certain pieces. Time, mortality, and immortality are all explored within his work, which is part of the reason the film is so excellent in its essence - some things have now been immortalised with a camera that otherwise may never have ordinarily had eyes lain upon them.
The film sparks this desire to climb trees and crawl through hedges; familiar desires as if from childhood
That said, the documentary excellently displays some of the processes behind his truly colossal pieces. Work that requires massive pieces of machinery to manoeuvre and countless pairs of hands to help make, utilising materials such as stone and hardwood. Work so vast that it is experiential as well as aesthetically profound.
Experience is an important part of Goldsworthy’s creations; it isn’t just the finished product, or creating the art, or hunting for materials. Sometimes experiences comes from nature itself. Goldsworthy and the film create a real sense that, even if clichéd now, nature is a wondrous thing that can be just as elating to experience as art itself. There were many moments throughout the film where I wanted to throw on a pair of wellies and hike through a small stream through a forest, just for the experience. It sparks the childhood desire to climb trees and crawl through hedges. He states that he is “just trying to make sense of the world,” demonstrated during a wonderful moment where he climbs through foliage and is clearly struggling, but never gives up trying. You see him working out how his limbs and his weight can balance and counterbalance brittle twigs. A perfect metaphor for the equilibrium of man and nature.
There were a couple of moments watching the film that I thought similar ground had already been trodden on previously, and I considered what it could be like if it predominantly just showed the images you'd get from Googling Andy Goldsworthy. But it catches you off guard in the very next scene with things you wouldn’t know were possible - sometimes funny, sometimes lovely, and even days after watching the film, there are still moments where I think “Wow, I’m so glad I saw that.” Leaning Into the Wind is a film about the appreciation we have of nature, process, outcomes, and the things that cease to exist physically but remain in your memory forever.
Leaning Into the Wind is screening at Broadway Cinema until Thursday 16 August
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