Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time

As part of this cinema’s ARTHOUSE 50 series, The Roxie & SFDocFest co-present the 25th anniversary of Thomas Riedelsheimer award winning classic documentary Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working With Time, projected on a pristine 35mm film print pulled from the Roxie’s vault.

Post-screening presentation by long-time Goldsworthy gallerist Cheryl Haines, founder & principal of the Haines Gallery.

“The river, the sea made solid. And stone made liquid. Then you see something you never saw before; that was always there but you were blind to it.” Landscape sculptor Andy Goldsworthy is renowned throughout the world for his work in ice, stone, leaves, wood. Some of his works stand and remain in the landscape; others decay, melt, or are blown away. His own remarkable still photographs are Goldsworthy’s way of talking about his often ephemeral works, of fixing them in time. Many find places in the exquisite and best-selling books that have been the bases of his wide popularity. Now with this deeply moving film, shot in four countries and across four seasons on Super 16mm, and the first major film he has allowed to be made, the elusive element of time adheres to his sculpture.

Following the film, Haines Gallery founder Cheryl Haines will regale us with stories & anecdotes of her exploits stemming from her 35-year collaboration with Andy Goldsworthy. 

Gallerist Cheryl Haines may well have been the individual primarily responsible for Thomas Riedlesheimer’s initial access to Goldsworthy and his works, at least those here in the States, introducing him to the San Francisco Bay Area-Goldsworthy-Haines Gallery nexus that has nurtured the art, the artist, and the region with a cyclical, three-decade symbiosis, and may well have spawned the director’s 28-year collaboration with English guitarist, composer and multi-instrumental improvisor Fred Frith, who brilliantly scored this and a number of Riedelsheimer movies, including his Rivers And Tides 2017 sequel, Leaning into the Wind.

In her capacity as Andy’s gallerist, Haines, the force of nature behind Haines Gallery and it’s non-profit subsidiary, For-Site, was responsible for Andy’s rise in America, and his renowned & influential U.S.- based commissions including the deYoung Museum’s entrance Drawn Stone, works found in the Presidio: Spire – Snake Walk – Tree Fall, and Earth Wall, as well as Stanford University’s Stone River, constructed from sandstone that was salvage from the University’s buildings destroyed in the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes.  

In 1994, Haines curated the solo exhibition Andy Goldsworthy: Stone Work in America –  a turning point in the artist’s career.  Just last month, on April 16th, Goldsworthy was honored at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s Annual Gala, for an evening celebrating his practice and lasting impact on the region. At the event, Andy remarked, “San Francisco, more than any other city, has fashioned me as an artist. It has been a privilege to be part of its creative energy – an energy central to its spirit and identity.”

Her gallery’s 12th solo exhibition, Andy Goldsworthy: For Olle, takes place May 8 – July 3 at the Haines Gallery: 2 Marina Boulevard, Building C.

Haines Gallery represents any number of high-profile artists whose work continually draws world-wide attention to the region, including Iranian-American artist, Shiva Ahmadi, Syrian painter and graphic designer, Tammam Azzam, and Chinese dissident sculptor, photographer & filmmaking activist, Ai Weiwei, whose spectacular, site-specific, multi-media installation, @Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz (2014 – 2015), was radically jeopardized by his sudden detention by Chinese authorities, a distressing derailment of disappointment which was only avoided, thanks in large part to the efforts of the curator and primary organizer of the entire myriad of complex logistics involved, Cheryl Haines and her Gallery team. The topical & history-making exhibition eventually drew 900,000 visitors! The entire risk-brimming undertaking is enticingly recounted in the 2019 feature film Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly, directed by… wait for it… the omnipresent & assiduous advocate of art & artists, Ms. Cheryl Haines, herself.

SF Doc Fest & The Roxie are honored, and utterly delighted that Ms. Haines could join us for this event devoted to celebrating our triple-threat of overlapping anniversaries: Doc Fest 25! / Roxie Arthouse 50 / Rivers & Tides 25.

About ARTHOUSE 50:

For 50 years, The Roxie has been a haven for the daring, the strange, and the unforgettable. Arthouse 50 honors that legacy with a series of films that reflect the spirit of arthouse cinema—past, present, and future—with more to come throughout the year.