MR. NATURAL

Filmmaker, Goldsworthy, reunite for new art doc, Leaning Into the Wind

Whenever I'm asked what my favorite movies are, I usually babble out three or four titles that pop into my head right that minute — Chinatown, I might say. Or Annie Hall, or Memento, or Grand Illusion. The selection usually varies, according to my mood in the moment.

But one title I always include on the list is Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time, German filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer's stirring 2001 documentary about the life and extraordinary work of "environmental artist" Andy Goldsworthy.

Not a conventional biographical doc, it says little about Scotsman Goldswothy's personal life. Instead, it's a vibrant joyride through themes of art, time and nature, expressed through the artist's powerful, yet often intentionally impermanent constructions — required viewing for anyone looking to jumpstart your own creative energy.

Artists and movie lovers who made Rivers and Tides such a long-running hit in Santa Cruz will be thrilled that filmmaker Riedelsheimer once again teams up with Goldsworthy for a new doc, Leaning Into The Wind.

Nature at work: mesmerizing

It's an invigorating portrait of the artist 16 years later: older, mellower (perhaps) but no less questing, as he travels the globe revisiting old work (or what's left of it), setting himself new challenges, and always seeking new ways to look at art, his work, and life.

Goldsworthy works with natural materials (leaves, twigs) meant to altered or destroyed by the caprices of nature, or mammoth stone constructions. One wall of clay develops a mesmerizing network of cracks and fissures as the clay dries.

Most haunting is a sculpted portal through which moonlight alone projects a glowing image of breathtaking beauty and no substance at all, into the darkness.

Like its predecessor, this move is a feast. Peel your orbs and dig in!
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