Bloomberg Commission 2012 winner Giuseppe Penone (his work ‘Spazio di Luce’ shown above at The Whitechapel Gallery) is back in London for a solo exhibition at the Gagosian on Britannia Street, with large-scale sculptures/installations and several smaller yet equally impactful drawings. On until 31 May 2014.

‘An idea of the infinite’

For Italian artist Giuseppe Penone, the humble tree “… is a being that memorializes the feats of its existence in its very form.” By echoing the rings that radiate out from the centre of every tree, Penone’s work emulates the kind of circularity which he asserts “…exists in all plant life…the repetition of a form [that] creates a kind of rituality, an idea of the infinite.” In ‘Circling’ at the Gagosian, Penone continues the tradition of Arte Provera of the 60s with his work using unconventional materials, which according to the exhibition notes, “heightens the subtle levels of interplay between man, art, and nature [and] emphasizes the involuntary processes of respiration, growth, and ageing that are shared by man and tree.”

Guiseppe Penone, 'Sigillo', 2012, white Carrara marble as seen in Chateau de Versailles, 2013. Image courtesy Flickr.com (user: Andrea).
Guiseppe Penone, ‘Sigillo’, 2012, white Carrara marble as seen in Chateau de Versailles, 2013. Image courtesy Flickr.com (user: Andrea).

Somewhat less tree-like is the 4-by-20-metre installation, ‘Sigillo [Seal]’, seen first in 2012 at Chateau de Versailles. The hugely phallic stone column appears to have rolled across the marble tiles beneath it, leaving a distinctly veiny impression.

Giuseppe Penone, 'Pelle di marmo e spne d'acacia - Marta', 2006, Carrara marble, canvas, acrylic, glass microspheres and acacia thorns, in 'Circling' at Gagosian, London. Image courtesy Gagosian.com. Photo credit Mike Bruce.
Giuseppe Penone, ‘Pelle di marmo e spne d’acacia – Marta’, 2006, Carrara marble, canvas, acrylic, glass microspheres and acacia thorns, in ‘Circling’ at Gagosian, London. Image courtesy Gagosian.com. Photo credit Mike Bruce.

In three nearly identical works that combine carved marble and acacia thorns, ‘Pelle di marmo e spine d’acacia – Nadia’ (and there’s one for ‘Livia’ and ‘Marta’ too),  the sculptor depicts what one might imagine to be a highly-magnified view of stone flesh and hair. Presumably, each is a portrait of a woman in Penone’s life (what with all the thorns, I’m dying to know who Marta, Livia and Nadia are, and whether or not the relationship was amicable. Somehow, I’ve got an image of women who are outwardly beautiful but inwardly prickly).

‘Scrigno [Casket]’ (2007), dominates another room with chocolatey-brown leather that suggests the outer skin of trunks and bronze is used to represent a sapling split open to reveal the tree’s life-blood pooled inside its heart of pure gold.

Giuseppe Penone, ‘Scrigno’ (detail), 2007, leather, bronze, gold, and resin, in ‘Circling’ at Gagosian, London. Image courtesy Gagosian.com. Photo credit Mike Bruce.
Giuseppe Penone, ‘Scrigno’ (installation view), 2007, leather, bronze, gold, and resin, in ‘Circling’ at Gagosian, London. Image courtesy Gagosian.com. Photo credit Mike Bruce.

Focused on the idea of trees, one might almost miss the artist’s fingerprint at the centre of Penone’s ‘Propagazione’ drawings, a mark which firmly denotes the unmistakeable human presence in this artist’s work. “The tree”, Penone says, “can be considered a metaphor for the work of a sculptor who fixes his actions in the material.”  With the singular gesture of pressing inked finger to paper, it seems the artist has also stamped a certain sovereignty over the tree he emulates as he binds himself within this noble prince of earth.

Giuseppe Penone, site-specific artwork 'Spazio di Luce (Space of Light)', 2012, for The Bloomberg Commission: Giuseppe Penone at the Whitechapel Gallery, London. Image courtesy designboom.com
Giuseppe Penone, site-specific artwork ‘Spazio di Luce (Space of Light)’, 2012, for The Bloomberg Commission: Giuseppe Penone at the Whitechapel Gallery, London. Image courtesy designboom.com

This one drawing may also be a blinding glimpse into one’s one mortality superimposed onto a split-second vision of the impact of humankind on nature.  As I left the gallery, this is the piece that silently made my heart hurt.

Giuseppe Penone, 'Propagazione', 1994/2014, detail of installation view, in 'Circling', at Gagosian, London. Image courtesy Gagosian.com
Giuseppe Penone, ‘Propagazione’, 1994/2014, detail of installation view, in ‘Circling’, at Gagosian, London. Image courtesy Gagosian.com

More links and information

Reviews of Giuseppe Penone: ‘Circling’ at Gagosian, London

Exhibition details: ‘Circling’ by Giuseppe Penone is at Gagosian, 6-24 Britannia Street, London, WC1X 9JD from 11 April to 31 May 2014. Free admission. Step-free access.