If you still have time, go quickly because a gorgeous Italian sculptor,  Giuseppe Penone ( b1947) is currently holding an exhibition at the Ikon in Birmingham. Saturday Guardian puts it as top of their recommended.

For starters, as a venue, the Ikon is beautifully constructed inside and out and one of those revamp successes. By resurrecting a potentially doomed piece of turreted victorian architecture, architects have achieved a more timeless, airy space which guarantees survival. It provides a perfect venue for Penone’s work because as a environmentalist, he is trying to preserve the imprints humans leave behind and how we connect with our surroundings.  Not surprisingly his main source of inspiration derives from nature. His artistic sensibilities are reflected in his own personal relationship to natural phenomena to the point that he almost wishes to become one with what he is observing and experiencing.

Trees are central to his work. He tells us about hugging trees and leaving imprints and then using sculptures how he is able to capture how he sees this imprint. Touching and breathing with nature becomes a major source of inspiration and by using various mediums, such as wood, marble, leaves, he successfully manages to replicate these emphatic experiences.

Penone’s intentions to capture imprints grew out of the 60′s love of Zening and being at one with nature. Yet they remind us of other, more damaging imprints – 21st century carbon footprints. It’s reassuring that the imprints he conceives, are undoubtedly natural and non-threatening and about a lasting, living world.

Reverse Your Eyes (1970), is a short video clip. Penone is filmed walking up a tree lined road. As he gets closer you discover he wears reflective contact lenses and a close up shows his eyes are reflecting the world around him so that the two become synonymous. He stops and stares at you the viewer but he isn’t seeing you, he shows you what he is seeing. It’s an extremely beautiful image, simply executed and as a photographic image it is iconic.

In addition there a many splendid examples of Penone’s drawings which show how he developed his concepts of interactions with nature and puts these together in his sculptures.

If you like trees, then this exhibition is not to be missed!

The exhibition runs at IKON in Birmingham until 19th July.

Brenda Baxter