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Giuseppe Penone

Leaves of Stone / Foglie di pietra

January 21–March 12, 2016
Hong Kong

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Works Exhibited

Giuseppe Penone, Foglie di pietra/Leaves of Stone, 2013 Bronze and found stone, 94 ½ × 51 3/16 × 35 7/16 inches (240 × 130 × 90 cm)© Archivo Penone

Giuseppe Penone, Foglie di pietra/Leaves of Stone, 2013

Bronze and found stone, 94 ½ × 51 3/16 × 35 7/16 inches (240 × 130 × 90 cm)
© Archivo Penone

Giuseppe Penone, Foglie di pietra, 2013 Bronze and found stone, 116 ⅛ × 59 1/16 × 66 15/16 inches (295 × 150 × 170 cm)© Archivo Penone

Giuseppe Penone, Foglie di pietra, 2013

Bronze and found stone, 116 ⅛ × 59 1/16 × 66 15/16 inches (295 × 150 × 170 cm)
© Archivo Penone

Giuseppe Penone, Riflesso del bronzo, 2004 Bronze, Dimensions variable© Archivo Penone

Giuseppe Penone, Riflesso del bronzo, 2004

Bronze, Dimensions variable
© Archivo Penone

About

A tree trunk of marble, of calcium, encloses, in our thought, the carbon, the plant, and the plant the camouflage of the color of the bronze, and the color of the bronze, the green of the foliage and the trees, the flowing of the material, of water, of rivers in which there courses the subterranean life of the world, of the veins whose flow is enclosed in our body as in the marble cave of the mountains.
—Giuseppe Penone

Gagosian Hong Kong is pleased to present Giuseppe Penone’s first gallery exhibition in Hong Kong, which includes key works from the last decade.

In an oeuvre spanning more than forty years, Penone has explored the subtle levels of interplay between man, nature, and art. His work represents a poetic expansion of Arte Povera’s radical break with conventional media, emphasizing the involuntary processes of respiration, growth, and aging that are common to both human being and tree.

In December 1968 Penone performed a series of formative acts, literally described, in a forest near his home in Garessio, Italy. In one, he interlaced the stems of three saplings in Ho intrecciato tre alberi (I have interwoven three trees); in another, Albero/filo di zinco/rame (Tree/Wire of Zinc/Copper), he made the imprint of his hand in nails on the trunk of a tree and then affixed twenty-two pieces of lead (his age at the time), joined up with zinc and copper wire. In Crescendo innalzerà la rete (Growing it will raise the net) he enclosed the top of a tree in a net weighed down with plants, while in L’albero ricorderà il contatto (The tree will remember the contact), he pressed his body to a tree, marking the points of contact with the trunk in barbed wire. In Continuerà a crescere tranne che in quel punto (It will continue to grow except at that point) he intervened in the growth processes of a tree by inserting a steel cast of his own hand; over time the tree retained the memory of his gesture. In a stream he immersed a slab of cement of the dimensions of his body with the imprints of his hands, feet, and face (La mia altezza, la lunghezza delle mie braccia, il mio spessore in un ruscello [My height, the length of my arms, my girth in a stream]).

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在我們想像中,大理石和鈣質的樹幹包含碳、植物、偽裝成青銅色的植物、青銅的色彩、樹木和葉子的綠色,還有流過地下世界的物質、水和河流,以及像山洞中大理石礦脈一樣藏在身體內的血脈。
—吉賽佩‧貝諾內

香港高古軒畫廊欣然呈獻吉塞普·佩諾內(Giuseppe Penone)於香港的首個畫廊展覽,展出其過去十年的力作。

從事創作四十多年期間,佩諾內深入探索人類、自然及藝術之間的微妙關係。他的作品以詩意的方式演繹貧窮藝術顛覆傳統媒介的理念,突顯人類及植物所共有的呼吸、成長及衰老的自然過程。

於1968年12月,佩諾內在意大利加雷肖居所附近的樹林進行一連串創作項目。其中,於名為《我把三棵樹交織》(Ho intrecciato tre alberi / I have interwoven three trees)的作品中,他將三株幼樹的樹幹纏在一起,而於《樹木/鋅線/銅》(Albero/filo di zinco/rame / Tree/wire of zinc/copper)中,他以鐵釘在樹幹上印上手印,然後加上22(他當時的年齡)塊鉛塊,再以鋅線和銅線連起。在《生長會提高繩網》(Crescendo innalzerà la rete / Growing it will raise the net)中,佩諾內以網罩住樹頂,並以植物固定;而在《接觸樹木的烙印》(L’albero ricorderà il contatto / The tree will remember the contact)中,他將身體壓在樹上,然後用帶刺的鐵絲標示接觸的位置。在《它會繼續生長,除了那一點》(Continuerà a crescere tranne che in quel punto / It will continue to grow except at that point)中,他根據自己的手打造鋼模,然後將鋼模插入樹幹,阻礙樹木生長,而樹木亦隨時間記錄了其舉動的痕跡。另一項名為《我在溪流中的身高、手長、腰圍》(La mia altezza, la lunghezza delle mie braccia, il mio spessore in un ruscello / My height, the length of my arms, my girth in a stream)的作品中,他將一塊有其雙手、雙足和臉部印記的水泥板浸入溪流中。

在70年代初,佩諾內繼續運用身體創作,為臉部製作石膏模,重現皮膚的紋理。在《顛覆眼睛》(Turning One’s Eyes Inside Out)(1970)中,他佩戴反光隱形眼鏡拍照,將視野變成自身與環境的準確分界線。他曾寫道:「詩人的作品就像鏡子一樣反映自己看到的世界,投影出自己的視野,亦即集體想像所需的影像。」

佩諾內透過接觸及巧妙地介入大自然,以人工的方法再現大自然,並發掘各種嶄新方式表達生命的堅韌不拔,利用個人的藝術創作調和自然事件。在每一件作品中,佩諾內都展現了天然素材的內在雕塑特質,透過雕鑿大理石及為自然材料鑄模,展現成長和時間的深層模式。

於此次展覽中,《青銅的反射》(Riflesso del bronzo / Reflection of bronze)(2004)是由八個部分組成的掛牆作品,每一塊表面粗糙、隱約反光的青銅板都按照上一塊鑄造而成,成為反映時間和過程的一面鏡子。佩諾內於《合歡樹尖刺—接觸》(Spine d’acacia—Contatto, aprile 2006 / Acacia thorns—contact, April 2006)(2006)中進一步探索行為與接觸、痕跡與烙印之間的關係,他將數千根尖刺插入已錶框的畫布上,形成螺旋紋,中央則顯現一對巨型嘴唇形跡,彷彿大自然直接在畫布上留下印記。

佩諾內經常以樹木及其與人類的關係作為創作題材,並從中發掘無限靈感。在《模糊界線》(Idistinti confini / Indistinct boundaries)(2012)系列作品中,每件作品的副標題均引用一條古老的意大利河流,佩諾內將光禿的樹幹放在仔細雕琢的純白大理石底座上,並嵌上生鏽鐵釘及銅線結,鐵釘及銅線的鏽痕慢慢滲入大理石,故作品在某程度上而言擁有生命。與展覽同名的作品《石葉》(Foglie di pietra / Leaves of stone)(2013)是一系列精鑄而成的青銅雕塑,青銅長樹枝環抱十八世紀的植物形態裝飾石雕碎片,藉此思考大自然超越人類文化及歷史的堅忍韌力。

Jordan Wolfson’s House with Face (2017) on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Fall 2022

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Fall 2022

The Fall 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Jordan Wolfson’s House with Face (2017) on its cover.

Photograph of the execution of Giuseppe Penone’s frottages in La Tourette, Éveux, France. Giuseppe Penone, Le Bois Sacré (The Sacred Forest), 2022, prepared canvas oil and wax pastel

Giuseppe Penone À La Tourette

Le Couvent Sainte-Marie de La Tourette, in Éveux, France, is both an active Dominican priory and the last building designed by Le Corbusier. As a result, the priory, completed in 1961, is a center both religious and architectural, a site of spiritual significance and a magnetic draw for artists, writers, architects, and others. This fall, at the invitation of Frère Marc Chauveau, Giuseppe Penone will be exhibiting a selection of existing sculptures at La Tourette alongside new work directly inspired by the context and materials of the building. Here, Penone and Frère Chauveau discuss the power and peculiarities of the space, as well as the artwork that will be exhibited there.

Augurs of Spring

Augurs of Spring

As spring approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, Sydney Stutterheim reflects on the iconography and symbolism of the season in art both past and present.

Giuseppe Penone, Idee di pietra (Ideas of Stone), 2004, installation view, Fort Mason, San Francisco, 2019–2021.

Giuseppe Penone: By the Bay

Elizabeth Mangini writes on Giuseppe Penone’s installation of two sculptures at San Francisco’s Fort Mason.

The cover of the Spring 2020 edition of the Gagosian Quarterly magazine. A Cindy Sherman photograph of herself dressed as a clown against a rainbow background.

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Spring 2020

The Spring 2020 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #412 (2003) on its cover.

Still from the video Giuseppe Penone at Fort Mason showing the artist's 2004 sculpture Idee di pietra (Ideas of Stone) installed at Fort Mason in San Francisco.

Giuseppe Penone at Fort Mason

An outdoor installation by Giuseppe Penone in San Francisco’s historic Fort Mason features two life-size bronze sculptures cast from fallen trees. The project continues the artist’s long investigation of the perpetual give-and-take between humans and nature. In this video, Penone discusses what drew him to this landscape and the concepts behind the installation.