Giuseppe Penone (Garessio, 1947 – )
The elements in white clay of the Alberod’acqua + labbra (Tree of Water + Lips) arise from the artist’s observation of his own casual gesture in response to a basic need, that of quenching thirst. Penone wrote, “Raising water to drink is a vital necessity; visualizing this event means building something similar to us.”
The installation examines two possibilities for raising water to drink it: through a column that perfectly coincides with the height of the artist’s mouth or through the cupping of hands. On the wall, Penone intervenes with charcoal to fix a drawing that recalls reflections of light at the bottom of a dark well, and here he inserts the white clay cast of his hands gathered into a cupping gesture also showing the imprint lips and tongue on the material. Penone prefers clay because, for “the exercise of sculpture,” it is a “solid, dry, and fluid element, slimy, and the sculptor is understood as the casual interference of a heavy intelligence, charged with earth, servant of the eyes and hands, closely adhering to real things and not separating the idea from the tool.”
