Over the road, hidden in the hedgerow is a small, perfect circle. Yet from here, we see tarmac and a white line before a small grassy verge and a cropped section of the hedge. While we are zoomed out further than the close up of Sweet Chestnut Leaf Hole, the relatively cropped frame of the site implies the question of how much further we could step away – of what the broader site and context might be?
Looking Closer
Across the road, over the white line, beyond the grass edge lies a hedgerow. Birds dart in and out and of the gaps where leafy overlaps wain.
Looking closer, is there a more precise shape – a circle made by a different hand?
Goldsworthy provides us the answer in the accompanying photo of the same name. The close up of Sweet Chestnut Leaf Hole reveals a crisp circle cut into the leaves of the hedge.
While the zoomed out image provides us with more context of the site, the frame is still relatively cropped and implies the question of how much further we could step away – of what the broader site might be?
This contrast of scale in the two images of Sweet Chestnut Leaf Hole asks us to look again, to delve into the thicket and find remnants of human presence, or of small moments of chance and unity amidst dense growth (whether urban or rural). The symmetrical circle is an anomaly, a portal of sorts. A form that will shift, change, disappear and reappear as the leaves move in the wind. A desiduous tree, come autumn the leaves will start to brown, curling into orangey, golden curls; the circle will dissolve, fall to the ground and decompose. The perfect circle of growth and decay, to growth again.
Andy Goldsworthy was born in Cheshire, England in 1956 and is now based in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. He studied fine art at Bradford College of Art and received his BA at Preston Polytechnic. Mainly using found and natural materials, Goldworthy’s work focuses on site-specific pieces, ephemeral processes and materials. Photography plays an important role in capturing the different stages of creation and the final realisation of these works before they decay or fall apart. He has compared the rhythmic, repetitive nature of his work to the labour of farm work that he did as a teenager. He has had a number of solo exhibitions as well as a retrospective at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2007. He was A.D White Professor-at-Large in Sculpture at Cornell University, New York and was awarded an OBE in 2000.