Clay Tree Wall is made up of a tree cut down as part of the coppicing process at Jupiter Artland. The Tree has been mounted laterally on a wall and carefully covered with clay. The clay has cracked over time but remains attached to tree and wall, simultaneously revealing and resisting processes of change.

When making Clay Tree Wall, Goldsworthy applied wet clay to the coppiced tree which meant that that as the clay dried out, it would crack – the shape and form of the tree dictating the pattern of the fissures. It is stark evidence of the process of change, a process that is also present within Goldsworthy’s other works at Jupiter Artland: Stone Coppice, Coppice Room and Stone House (Bonnington).

The four permanent sculptures that Goldsworthy has made at Jupiter Artland explore the different layers in the landscape and the way that a tree penetrates those layers.

Biography

Andy Goldsworthy is a British sculptor, photographer and environmentalist. He was born in 1956. He was brought up on the Harrogate side of Leeds in the green belt. Here he took on work as a farm labourer as a schoolboy and said that the repetitive nature of the work informed his future art. He studied Fine Art at Bradford College of Art from 1974 to 1975 and then at Preston Polytechnic from 1975 to 1978. He now lives in
Dumfriesshire and travels the world undertaking commissions and creating works.

Andy Goldsworthy produces site-specific sculpture and land art set in natural and rural settings. His art involves natural and found objects to create temporary and permanent sculptures that reflect the character of their environment. He is well known for his ephemeral pieces which are made from natural materials such as snow, ice, wood, flowers, leaves, sand, mud and twigs.