11-meter Tree

Albero di 11 metri (11-meter Tree),1969 –89,belong to a cycle of works called Alberi (Trees),which the artist worked on from 1969 until recently. Beginning with industrial wooden beams, he carves, scores,and “excavates ” the wood, to bring out the original tree ’s trunk and branches, which he identifies through the knots that are still visible in the beam. With a process the artist has defined as “barking ” (the removal of the bark),he extracts the form of a younger tree, whose image is still preserved within the beam