Arch

Renowned for creating art outdoors and from natural materials, British artist Andy Goldsworthy here offers an inside look at an intriguing project. Following the route along which sheep were once driven from Scotland to markets in the north of England, he builds, dismantles, and rebuilds along the way a red sandstone arch.Made of blocks hewn from a Scottish quarry, the arch begins its journey in a dilapidated stone sheepfold. Goldsworthy's color photographs track its progress southward, as it is constructed in the morning and taken down in the evening in a variety of locations, including the site of a vanished stone sheep pen in a town center, in a field high above a six-lane highway, and half in and half out of a stream.Goldsworthy lives near the beginning of the arch's route; writer David Craig lives near its end. He shares Goldsworthy's concern for the history of the land, and his text touches both on the route's ancient origins and on the people who have lived and worked along it. His delightful evocation of the arch's travels and its reception in various communities brings Goldsworthy's project to life.