Prairie Cairn/ For My Father/ Grinnell, Iowa

Label Text A cairn is a mound of rough stone that serves as a landmark or memorial, a practice that can be traced to prehistoric times. Andy Goldsworthy has frequently used this form in his sculpture. The photographs seen here document an ephemeral component of the artist’s Three Cairns project (2002), for which he constructed companion permanent sculptures on the grounds of the Des Moines Art Center. Prairie Cairn was built in the spring of 2001 at Grinnell College’s Conard Environmental Research Area, near Kellogg, Iowa. Goldsworthy’s cairns are made through dry-point masonry, in which no mortar is used; instead, the stones are precisely fitted together, relying on weight and friction for their stability. Goldsworthy photographed Prairie Cairn over eighteen months: with varying heights of grass, in snow, and while the area was subjected to a controlled maintenance burn. This cairn is intended to collapse in time as it is eroded by wind and weather.
Exhibition History"Andy Goldsworthy: Three Cairns" Des Moines Art Center, July 20 - October 13, 2002; Nueberger Museum of Art January 26 - April 12, 2002; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, April 26 - August 31, 2003
Published ReferencesPublished on informational poster for The International Cather Seminar 2005 (June 18-25), "Violence, the Arts & Cather", presented by The University of Nebraska-Lincoln & the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial and Education Foundation.

DimensionsFrame (a-o): 36 1/2 × 81 1/2 × 1 3/4 in. (92.7 × 207 × 4.4 cm)
Sheet (/image a-o): 22 9/16 × 68 1/4 in. (57.3 × 173.4 cm)
Frame (p): 18 1/2 × 19 3/8 × 1 1/2 in. (47 × 49.2 × 3.8 cm)
Sheet (/image p): 10 3/4 × 9 3/4 in. (27.3 × 24.8 cm)

Accession Number 2002.15.a-.p

Classificationsphotograph

InscriptionsPrairie Cairn/ For My Father/ Grinell, Iowa 2001-2002 (l,c graphite on image p)

Provenance(Galerie Lelong, New York); Des Moines Art Center [purchased from the previous, 2002]