Andy Goldsworthy Snowballs from June 2000

15Jun12

Greenpeace backs ‘wonderful’ giant snowball art

21 June, 2000
More from the scrapbook

The artist Andy Goldsworthy has released 13 giant snowballs on the streets of the City of London.

The 6-7 foot snowballs will be left to melt and public reactions recorded via webcam’s for broadcast on this site and at www.eyestorm.com.

The snowballs were made from Scottish snow last winter and transferred from cold storage down to London on midsummmer’s eve. Asked how he thought people would react Andy Goldsworthy said:
“I don’t know what will happen. Some people will get quite angry. And some will probably have snowball fights. And some will think its wonderful.”

Peter Melchett, Greenpeace Executive Director, speaking from the site of one of the snowballs, said :
“I’ve always been a fan of Goldsworthy and I think the snowballs really are wonderful. They make an astonishingly powerful piece of work. Climate change means that snow is already a rare thing in London. In future whole generations of London children may grow up without knowing what snow is.”

Greenpeace is a beneficiary of the project and will receive a 10% donation from the sales of Andy Goldsworthy’s photographic images sold via their website, linked to www.eyestorm.com.

Peter Melchett added,
“By chance, one of Andy’s snowballs is outside BP’s HQ. Oil companies play a direct role in the meltdown that is already affecting the arctic ice cap, and the Scottish mountains from where this snow came.”

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/press-releases/greenpeace-backs-wonderful-giant-snowball-art

Natural talent

He thought he’d end up as a farmer, but has made a career out of creating exquisite sculptures from twigs and stones, leaves and snow. Now, for a major retrospective, Britain’s foremost landscape artist is making a curtain of horse-chestnut twigs – and smearing dung on gallery windows. By Tim Adams.

Watch a slideshow of the installation here.