Self Portrait research - vessel as metaphor
In 2021 I came across Giuseppe Penone, Breath 5, 1978, a terracotta sculpture made in clay modelled on the imagined breath exhaled from the artist’s mouth. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/penone-breath-5-t03420
Guiseppe Penone, Breath 5, 1978
Terracotta Sculpture
1.5m tall, large scale
3 sections
Vessel form
One of nine in a series
Indentations of one side of body and ripples on other side with cast of artist’s mouth at the top of the piece.
Piece is hollow ‘like a breath’.
Reflects Penone’s body in space.
Links to creation stories and how life was breathed into clay.
At the time I made some very basic unfired pieces using clay. They were about nature and how trees breathe and affect both natural and human environments. I tried out two different ideas: i. imprints of bark and branches, and ii. imprints of blossom onto square clay pieces.
At the time I became interested in the vessel as metaphor – e.g. a human body and breath (Penone), the tree and breath (my test clay pieces).
Definition of VESSEL e.g. to hold liquid such as a bowl
- DUCT e.g. holding blood or other fluid such as a blood vessel
- PERSON e.g. embodying or having a particular quality
- SHIP e.g. a large boat