Environmental sculptor Andy Goldsworthy has been commissioned by the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art to create a work on Cornell's campus during the first two weeks of October -- but no one knows exactly what he's doing or even where he's doing it. The best bet is Fall Creek gorge, in which he did an exploratory walk when he last visited campus, but the only way to find out for sure is to go out looking.
Preferring to create his art in privacy rather than staging a public performance, Goldsworthy is known for creating sculptures of extraordinary beauty out of natural materials -- wood, stone, water, leaves -- and then photographing his works before they decay or are dismantled. The artist, who lives in Scotland, has done site installations in Britain, in Japan, in Alaska and elsewhere.
Goldsworthy will go public, however, when he discusses his work in a public lecture Thursday, Oct. 14, at 5:15 p.m. in Uris Hall Auditorium. The lecture is sponsored by the Georges Lurcy Charitable and Educational Trust.
Goldsworthy also will return to Cornell in March 2000 to do a second installation, this time indoors at the Johnson Museum and to show photographs and drawings about his projects in Ithaca.
Goldsworthy's installation at Cornell is organized by Nancy Green, chief curator of the Johnson Museum, and made possible by a generous gift from Sherry and Joel Mallin. The lecture also is funded by the Cornell Council for the Arts, the Department of Art, the Department of Landscape Architecture and the Center for the Environment. The museum staff said it is grateful to Galerie LeLong in New York for its assistance.
The Johnson Museum is open Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, updates on the Goldsworthy installation or to report sitings of Goldsworthy in the gorge or elsewhere, call 255-6464 or visit the web site www.museum.cornell.edu.
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