Giuseppe Penone
February 2022 Paris, I visited The Centre Pompidou, where upon arrival two works by Giuseppe Penone, ‘Ripetere il bosco’ 1969-1997 and ‘Respirare l’ombra’ , 1999 immediately engaged me. Despite having previously researched Penones work, his roots within the ArtePovre movement during the 1960’s, it was only through witnessing his work in person that I could acknowledge scale, aroma and the sensual properties at play. He has since become one of my strongest influences in Unit 10.
‘Svolgere La Propria Pelle -11 Giugno’,1970
‘Ripetere il bosco’ (To Repeat the Forest), 1969-1997
Penone’s artistic expression through sculpture often focused on the corporeal and natural form, their respiration, growth and senses. Linkages and preconceived boundaries are challenged.
When considering ‘Ripetere il bosco’ 1969-1997, it would seem the artwork lies in process ; a relationship created between the real time of growth and the personal time of peeling back the bark.
The time spent excavating the original tree by Penone is not lost to the viewer, but is conceptualised within the finalised work and creates a tautology with the tree’s growth. Seeing the representation of time in this manner has led me to further consider the representation of history of time within my chosen material’s, flint and the Septarian nodules detailed in pages, ‘Homesfield Quarry’ and ‘Material Research’.
With ‘Iron Curtain’, I wanted to represent the movement and flow of grain in a static work, that is, time paused.
In ‘Cutting Through’, the movement of rock naturally with time is usually inconceivable but now is visually accelerated.
‘Respirare l’ombra’ , 1999
‘Respirare l’ombra’ , 1999
‘Respirare L’ombra’, 1999
‘Breathe the Shadow’,1999 a large scale interior installation, strongly depicts the interdependence of man with our natural world. Man’s vulnerability is reflected in the packed containment of laurel leaves within the space and the scent helps connectivity and activates memory.
Alongside this Penone’s engagement with two dominant materials metals with leaves, helps push the simplicity of his message.
With consideration I have noticed similarities within my Unit 10 work whereby, I have condensed by palate to one man-made and one natural material. This directs focus and allows deeper experimentation with components, ‘Confined’ and ‘Iron Curtain’ exemplify this.
‘Patate’ (1977) 5 Elements in Bronze, Potatoes
In ‘Patate’, 1977, Penone describes an ethos whereby the nature surrounding us is actually an artifice, modified over centuries and now beyond our recognition. It is therefore a cultural landscape.
‘One tends to separate the human action from nature as if we are not taking part in it’, (Penone,1977)
I have greatly considered Penone’s threads of thought because of my agricultural background. This ideology has been at play, in ‘Burnt Out’ and has continued to influence my artistic practice since, with ‘Contained’, 2022 and “Cutting Through”, 2022.
Penone’s use of agricultural raw materials gave me further confidence in my ongoing exploration of a more personal farm produce wheat, another ephemeral material.
‘Rovesciare i propri occhi’ 1970
“A work of art exists if it helps in the understanding of the reality of the present.” Giuseppe Penone, 2002
This statement helped anchor the importance of representation of current affairs within my own practice. Leading to the creation of “Iron Curtain” a representation of my reaction and understanding of the current affairs between Russia and Ukraine.
Other Influential Works
‘Geometria nelle mani. Ovale’ 2005
‘Ombres de terre’ 2000-2003
