Patterns and possibilities: Wright and Penone

Working condensed hours, my occasional Fridays off work offer a rare treat to see exhibitions on my own. I’m often excited by the unintentional juxtapositions that are created by my choices of what to see. I wrote about one such combination of collage earlier this year.

Today I visited Richard Wright at the Camden Art Centre and Giuseppe Penone ‘Thoughts in the Roots’ at the Serpentine. I was struck by the meditative quality brought by both, not least by the large-scale, detailed works requiring you to slow down and absorb in mercifully cool, white gallery spaces on a hot day.

Some of the tools recommended for supporting mental health these days include precisely the modes of attention at the heart of these artist’s works: time spent in and appreciating nature, meditative exercise/use of your body, attention to the breath, visual puzzles, methodical pattern-making, colouring. I found my busy brain stilled and focused simply through the act of looking at their works.

Both spaces also provided their own patterns to capture for my #MuseumofShadows.

In response, here’s my own visual ‘essay’ of images juxtaposed from the two.