Giuseppe Penone, Alpi marittime, 2012 - PM © PG
Giuseppe Penone’s work with nature is documented in his Alpi Marittime, a series of photographs taken 1968. In these, the artist makes small gestures that connect him to streams and trees, interfering with their growth without interrupting it. What exactly is he doing? He attaches a metal cast of his own hand onto the tree trunk: this sign of his contact will remain forever, even as the tree grows. In ‘I have woven three little trees’, Penone wove three twigs into an unnatural shape; he measured his own height and the length of his arms and using those measurements, built a rectangle of stones along the course of the stream. So his body and actions become an integral part of the growth and flow of what he calls the ‘flow of stones’, the natural growth. Our short lifespan is nothing compared to the immensely long lifespan of nature. Penone pursues this live span, camouflages himself within nature, and grows with it himself.
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