Details

Object type

drawing; print

Title

Snowball Drawing

Artist/Maker

Andy Goldsworthy

Culture/School

British; Contemporary Art; Landart

Place Associated

Scotland, Glasgow (place made)

Date

1996

Materials

clay stains on paper

Dimensions

framed: 1258 mm x 2426 mm; unframed: 1136 mm x 2325 mm

Description

Sheet of white paper stained with clay of six different colours. Six clay balls were placed one above another on the right side of the paper and the clay was then left to flow along the sheet to the other side, where it all mixed together. Inscribed by the artist in pencil in lower left corner: “SIX CLAY PIT SNOWBALLS. EACH SNOWBALL STAINED WITH A DIFFERENT COLOUR OF CLAY THAT MIXED TOGETHER MAKE RED. DUMFRIESSHIRE, ANDY GOLDSWORTHY, 1996”

This work is directly related to the two photographs by Goldsworthy titled ‘Clay Pit Holes’ and to the ‘Clay Floor’, a permanent installation commissioned from Andy Goldsworthy by Glasgow’s new Gallery of Modern Art in 1995 and installed in 1996, shortly before the GoMA’s opening. Located in a small space near the premises presently occupied by Gallery 2, the thick layer of clay cracked into fascinating irregular pattern in the process of drying. Goldsworthy envisaged the floor as follows:

“The clay floor becomes an integral part of the building. I want it to be placed at or just below the surface of the existing floor so that it feels as if it has been revealed as something that existed before the building. The city like the countryside has been laid down over time in layers – archaeological, botanical, geological,… of which the clay floor is both evidence and reminder. There is a difference between a work that is made to the edges of the room and one that retains a border. One is an object the other IS the floor and is saying ‘this is clay, this building is earth.’”

The clay used for the floor in GoMA was extracted from the clay pit shown in the ‘Clay Pit Holes’ photographs, and it was the same clay of which the six ‘snowballs’ in this work were made. The ‘Snowball Drawing’ was created by Andy Goldsworthy during the installation of the floor in GoMA in 1996 and was presented by him to Glasgow Museums.

Unfortunately, the floor no longer exists in GoMA. Due to its fragile nature and fast deterioration, it had to be re-installed already after two years in 1998, and was in the state of advanced crumbling again by 2001, at which point it was decided to remove the floor from display.

ID Number

TEMP.11874

Location

Gallery of Modern Art Gallery 2