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Just after midnight on June 21,2000, Midsummer Day, artist Andy Goldsworthy supervised the unloading of 13 huge snowballs from refrigerated trucks onto the streets of London. What took place as an astonished public came upon these snowballs -- each weighing about a ton -- is captured in spontaneous and evocative pictures taken by photographers working around the clock.

Here, then, is the story of Goldsworthy's largest ephemeral work to date. Made in one century (the 20th) and unwrapped to melt very slowly in the next, this is four-dimensional sculpture in which the lifespan and history of the snowballs are as important as their appearance at any moment. As Judith Collins explains in her introduction, and Goldsworthy in his diaries, this is a natural progression from his previous work with snow. Goldsworthy presents a unique confrontation between the wilderness and the city -- snowballs made in the Scottish winter brought to the streets of London in the summertime.

Famous for transforming the natural world into the canvas for his surprising and colorful work, Goldsworthy expands upon his fascination with snowballs in the urban melting action documented here. Imagine walking through your city on a hot summer day and discovering a large snowball melting on the sidewalk. This is just what Londoners experienced when on the night of June 21, 2000, Goldsworthy, working the Barbican Arts Centre in London with many helpers, placed 13 huge snowballs throughout the city. For the next six days he watched and recorded as each ball (weighing about a ton) was sculpted by the city environment, people's touch, and temperature. Though three of the snowballs were destroyed by an angry viewer, most succumbed to the wind and the warm summer air, slowly revealing the objects packed within them: barbed wire, feathers, stones, branches, wool, and more. The resulting shifts in shape, color, and texture comment gently, and with humor, on the transience of time, the beauty of change, and the steady force of nature. The many color photographs included here document the melting balls as well as Londoners' reactions. Goldsworthy's daily comments, from the first snowfall to the last drip, and the Tate Gallery's Judith Collins's perfectly friendly and accessible introduction make this playful but complex work a pleasure to explore. Recommended for all contemporary and environmental art collections. Rebecca Miller, "Library Journal" Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.