Is "Hanging Stone" meant as a monument to the people and place? Or was he merely reconstructing what he found before him, as he has done with so many of his works? Was he building something not of the past but for the future? Or was he simply working with the materials on hand, the materials intrinsic to the place – place where stone was the building block that defines the place, that built the community? Goldsworthy grew up in a nearby village, stone runs through his veins and iron is in his blood. He knows this place, he understands how environments inform how we see the world, how we move through it.
Equally, why Ebenezer and why Job? And why Ebenezer for a house filled with barbed wire, when the word Ebenezer is derived from a Hebrew phrase that means “stone of help,” itself taken from the stone Samuel set up to commemorate the help God gave to the Israelites? Is the help that can be rendered only realized through death, as God allows the spirit to escape like smoke through the wire? And why Job’s Well for a house of nourishment and worship, when the name Job is derived from its Hebrew origin meaning “persecuted.” Is the reward for having enough patience to survive the hike up which is itself a test of patience, for which the reward is water and shelter? In many respects, it seems the naming convention should be reversed.
And finally, were our assumptions about the people and the place right or did they even figure into Goldsworthy’s creation? In other words, was our interest in human dignity and cultural traditions skewing our thinking towards something that was not? Were we imposing our
thoughts and personal interests upon another’s work?
We vowed to research more about the place and artist’s intent upon our return.
Upon our return, we read the artist’s statement on the Ross Foundation website and several articles that had been printed by various news outlets. First, we were pleased to learn that both Ross and Goldsworthy really hope people visit the site without first reading a lot about it – so to experience the place with a certain freshness – as did we. Second, our assumption that the work was about the past, about both people and places, was correct. As Goldsworthy notes about the installation in his artist’s statement:
It bears the evidence of an industrial past – it is a complex, tough, resilient and powerful landscape with a strong human presence. There is hardly a blade of grass that does not some way reflect the human hand, and yet Northdale is a place in which nature is strong in terms of both its landscape and the people who have worked there.
And equally true is its connection to the present:
Whilst Hanging Stones would be connected to the past, it would also be a contemporary work of art that addresses our relationship with the landscape today. It would be very much about the future.
Reusing stones to rebuild buildings is a way Goldsworthy is able ‘to connect with the people who first made the buildings.’ Moreover, as he says, “The resonance with those who have gone before is important and is made more poignant by the fact that I am making spaces to be occupied by people to come.” It is equally a contemporary work that is ‘very much about the future.’ And “the kind of life that Hanging Stones will have would depend upon people – not as spectators but as participants in a work.”
As for the reasons behind Ebenezer and Job, we can’t say with any certainty (the iron ore from
Far Left::
Bog's Jouse
Looking In
Immediate Left:
Bog's House
Looking Out
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