Leaning Into the Wind: Andy Goldsworthy (2017)

Directed by: Thomas Riedelsheimer | 93 minutes | documentary | Starring: Andy Goldsworthy, Holly Goldsworthy

An artist is not always able to bring his work so close that you immediately want to roam the forest in a raincoat and boots in search of yellow leaves, huge branches and fallen trees. Filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer has made a wonderfully atmospheric film about landscape artist Andy Goldsworthy with ‘Leaning into the Wind’ (2018). Goldsworthy’s work consists of material that can be found in the environment, and that can be anything, such as reeds, raindrops, or soil. Sometimes they are solid monumental works, but often they are also transient creations that can only exist for a short time. Like when Goldsworthy lies down in the rain, and when he gets up again, a dry spot is briefly visible in the shape of his body. The vulnerable presence, or rather the supposed presence of those bodies, is a recurring theme in his work, often in the form of stone-carved sarcophagus-like alcoves.

Riedelsheimer and Goldsworthy have known each other for some time from an earlier collaboration (‘Rivers and Tides’, 2000) and perhaps that is why ‘Leaning into the Wind’ has become such a relaxed and at the same time intimate portrait. Goldsworthy talks about how his life has changed in the meantime and what the influence has been on his work. His life has taken a different turn than he had imagined. This deviation from the usual path has sent his work in a new direction. Why walk on the sidewalk when you can walk through the bushes? He climbs from pollard willow to pollard willow, squeezes his way through the above-ground roots of trees, and creates a path in a wall of gigantic boulders.

‘Leaning into the Wind’ is an uninformative but audiovisually strong document of a creative process in which Riedelsheimer manages to transform the noise of masonry drills and electric saws into a wonderful meditative experience.