Lot Essay
In his 1994 sculpture entitled Leafhorn, Goldsworthy sews together sweet chestnut leaves into a spiralled horn. To the artist, the leaf holds special significance, having been generated at the tree's core the leaf is an expression of the tree's vigour. As he writes in his journal, Goldsworthy creates forms that grow from the leaf's architecture. Because "the chestnut makes spirals and horns," Leafhorn is "an exploration of structure and growth" (Goldsworthy, quoted in A. Goldsworthy, Wood, London 1996, p. 69). Furthermore, upon first glance, the viewer is immediately made aware of the work's obvious relation to images of cornucopia, thus reinforcing the ideas of earth's creative powers that are so central to Goldsworthy's work.