Haunch of Venison - Giuseppe Penone

On a brilliant day in London last week an unplanned moment occurred. Giuseppe Penone, I am ashamed to admit, was unknown to me when I spotted a Richard Long/Giuseppe Penone exhibition at the Haunch of Venison's temporary accommodation in the old RA Schools building.

Carving wood, working with trees, forests and the environment are the themes of Penone's work. As opposed to our great contemporary wood sculptor, David Nash (whose work I admire hugely) Penone evaluates the wood from the inside and this piece is an example.

It is called Ripetere il bosco - frammento 28 (To repeat the forest - fragment 28) 2007. Quoting from the exhibition notes "...a beam of wood from within which emerges a bare sapling like a butterfly from a cocoon. The growth-rings in the manufactured, utilitarian length of wood are followed inwards and reveal 'the way the tree rose into the sky...'"

At first it looks as though the sapling has been stuck into a block of wood, but in fact, he has worked back to 'extract' it from the solid form, back to it's early life.

Having admired Richard Long for many years it was a joy to see new works. this large Portland stone circle is bisected by Delabole slate from Cornwall and is positioned on the North/South axis. I knelt down to look at it more laterally and one of the stones nearest to me had the marks of an ammonite. These works are subtle and reward careful and considered observation. But that is the same for all works of art.

My day out in London was exceptional in many unforeseen ways. Tomorrow I shall blog about White Cube and the Chapman Brothers.

Arborophile - sculpture of David Nash

David Nash is a very special sculptor, and the BBC programme about him which was on Thursday 17 Feb 2011 was an excellent appraisal of this thoughtful man. We were lucky enough to meet him at Charelston a few years ago, and were impressed by his lack of bombast, and gentle integrity. His extraordinary sculptures are the result of a chain saw carving a piece of wood. His work is to be seen and is collected internationally, but the ones which are quite site specific and inaccessible to any but the privileged few, are the circles of planted trees which he works on over many years. An example is Ash Dome near to his studio and home in North Wales.

The picture above was taken in September 2004. The following was Nash's conception of the project, recorded in 1983 but planted in 1977.

This evolving and gradual, painstaking process is very special. His single minded attention to trees as a source of inspiration and as material, has been maintained without deviation. His drawings are strong, considered and elegiac, illuminating the strength of the wood in which he works. I still can't believe I didn't buy the small drawing of Pyramid, Sphere, Cube which he donated to Charleston for the Quentin Follies some years ago.