Friday, September 26, 2008

Goldsworthy's Roof



The National Gallery in Washington D.C. has an Andy Goldsworthy sculpture called Roof. It's dated 2004-2005 and the cell phone tour stencil on the floor notes that it's made of Buckingham Virginia slate. But it's also made of glass, with most of the sculpture in an outside sunken patio and the other part bulging through the glass into the interior of the museum.

The exterior portion is not accessible from the outside so there is a view from above into the sunken courtyard filled with slate and then a view from below. The reflections off the glass are distracting, especially on a cloudy day, so that the sense of space seems somehow reduced. It is in fact looking through a window to view the piece. But the piles are perfect. Gradually rounding to their intersections and with the far piles as backdrops to the near piles caught between inside and outside.