Matrice 

Curator: Walking up to this sculpture by Giuseppe Penone, titled "Matrice", I am immediately struck by how primordial it feels, as though pulled directly from some ancient forest. It is a mixed-media piece, primarily wood. Editor: My first impression? That it seems both deeply serene and unsettlingly strange. The dark, smooth upper section against the rough, natural supports… it gives off this fascinatingly uncanny valley effect. Curator: Uncanny, yes! And so characteristic of Penone's work. He often explores the relationship between humanity and nature, and how they intertwine. In "Matrice", that polished log appears almost fossilized. It looks like there might be something under it, barely visible! The title, of course, translates to "matrix" or "womb", suggesting ideas about creation and origins. What does the "matrix" or "womb" say to you? Editor: The supports…they feel like limbs, or roots seeking purchase. I read something similar recently in postcolonial ecocriticism that suggested we’re looking at something like botanical personification – imbuing natural forms with human characteristics to rethink power structures embedded within both human/nature interactions. But what interests me the most is not so much where Penone’s personal narrative comes through the medium as the kind of symbolic statement it creates by combining abstract language and his reflection as it exists on our sociohistorical trajectory. It seems to say: What narratives are we telling? And for whom? Curator: Yes, the organic versus the imposed… I feel the "Matrice" might be whispering about a search for our collective self, urging the beholder to seek themselves into something long lived like an ancient wood. I would not have arrived here myself! This interpretation is now completely coloring my interpretation! Editor: It makes me wonder what dialogues between natural entities or their traces and human observers become possible with works of art such as these. Curator: It makes us engage, contemplate the interconnectedness of things! I think of my old poetry professor—art's aim to provide an intellectual adventure… to lead one beyond. Editor: An adventure, indeed. Curator: One to come back to later. Thanks for the trek, truly.