Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2012.

Snow Wall, Ellesmere Island

Artist Andy Goldsworthy (British, 1956 - 1956)

Date1989

MediumCibachrome photograph

DimensionsOverall, Frame: 42 3/4 × 43 in. (108.6 × 109.2 cm)

ClassificationsContemporary art

Credit LineGift of Renée and Paul Mansheim

Object number2011.13.1A

On View

Not on view

DescriptionThe work consists of two framed cibachrome photographs. The larger image depicts a snow sculpture created by the artist and the smaller one, called the site-image, depicts the surrounding terrain
Label TextAndy Goldsworthy British, b. 1956 Snow Wall, Ellesmere Island, 1989 Snow Wall, Ellesmere Island (In Situ Perspective), 1989 Cibachrome prints (photographs) Andy Goldsworthy carved Snow Wall on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic in 1989, and by now the sculpture has probably disappeared. The artist often makes sculptures from organic materials like sticks, leaves, stones, and snow, then documents his work with photographs before the work decays. Goldsworthy says his photographs capture the sculpture “at its heights, marking the moment when the work is most alive… Process and decay are implicit.” With this sensitivity to a work’s transience, Goldsworthy’s sculptures resist the seemingly timeless quality of the white-walled museum or gallery. Gifts of Renée and Paul Mansheim 2011.13.1a–b