People do not realise that many of my works are done in urban places. I was brought up on the edge of Leeds, five miles from the city centre-on one side were fields and on the other, the city. – Andy Goldsworthy
The hardened mass of liquid stones had much stronger qualities than those which had simply torn. The skin remained a recognisable part of the molten stone. – Andy Goldsworthy
Abandoning the project was incredibly stressful after having gone through the process of building the room, installing the kiln, collecting the stones, sitting with the kiln day and night as it came to temperature, experiencing the failures. – Andy Goldsworthy
Stones are checked every so often to see if any have split or at worst exploded. An explosion can leave debris in the elements so the firing has to be abandoned. – Andy Goldsworthy
As with all my work, whether it’s a leaf on a rock or ice on a rock, I’m trying to get beneath the surface appearance of things. Working the surface of a stone is an attempt to understand the internal energy of the stone. – Andy Goldsworthy
Three or four stones in one firing will all react differently. I try to achieve a balance between those that haven’t progressed enough and those about to go too far. – Andy Goldsworthy
Confrontation is something that I accept as part of the project though not its purpose. – Andy Goldsworthy
Photography is a way of putting distance between myself and the work which sometimes helps me to see more clearly what it is that I have made. – Andy Goldsworthy
I am not a performer but occasionally I deliberately work in a public context. Some sculptures need the movement of people around them to work. – Andy Goldsworthy
The stones tear like flesh, rather than breaking. Although what happens is violent, it is a violence that is in stone. A tear is more unnerving than a break. – Andy Goldsworthy
I did tests on small stones before collecting and committing myself to the larger ones. – Andy Goldsworthy
I soon realised that what had happened on a small scale cannot necessarily be repeated on a larger scale. The stones were so big that the amount of heat required was prohibitively expensive and wasteful. – Andy Goldsworthy
My art is an attempt to reach beyond the surface appearance. I want to see growth in wood, time in stone, nature in a city, and I do not mean its parks but a deeper understanding that a city is nature too-the ground upon which it is built, the stone with which it is made. – Andy Goldsworthy
The first stone was just tried in the spirit of experimentation. The opening of the stone was far more interesting than the drawing that I had done on it. – Andy Goldsworthy
I’m cautious about using fire. It can become theatrical. I am interested in the heat, not the flames. – Andy Goldsworthy
Fire is the origin of stone. By working the stone with heat, I am returning it to its source. – Andy Goldsworthy
Occasionally I have come across a last patch of snow on top of a mountain in late May or June. There’s something very powerful about finding snow in summer. – Andy Goldsworthy
Once the fired stone is out of the kiln, it is still possible to mentally reconstruct it in its original form. – Andy Goldsworthy
