At one with nature

Yorkshire Sculpture Park is the first and best of the breed in the British Isles. Since 1977 it has activated 500 acres of undulating land between Barnsley and Wakefield in a unique way. A man-made upper and lower lake, with a weir and cascade at the narrow junction between the two, runs through the middle of the Bretton Hall estate â” a widening of the River Dearne at the bottom of a valley. An 18th-century manor house survives. Farming continues in a professional way but as part of another focus, which is, of course, aesthetic.

Andy Goldsworthy was YSP’s Artist in Residence in 1987. Since then he has worked and shown in Japan and North America among other places. His familiar vocabulary of elemental shapes, including the circle, the cone and the arch, continues to be in evidence along with his fondness for serpentine lines and cracks in stone, wood or clay. However, an outstanding aspect of this survey (until 6 January 2008), which uses four different galleries on the estate as well as the grounds themselves, is the range of mood from dark to light. Aged 50, Goldsworthy continues to surprise. He can shock the nostrils and the nervous system with actual dung and animal’s blood, but on reflection each piece turns out to be part of a consistent, overarching philosophy about the changing face of nature. Each example of his work makes you think as well as look and feel.

He told me during our interview that when young he was influenced by ‘Performance’ art and aware of American ‘Land’ artists, such as De Maria and Smithson â” rather than of English ones, such as Richard Long. I asked him whether making works with his own hands was a matter of principle in an era which tends to downgrade the role of craftsmanship in art.