"We are nature. We are all nature. This is crucial because we always separate nature from ourselves, putting nature outside... but nature is not in the third person, nature is in the first person, it’s inside as." 1Since the mid-1990s, Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto has produced an influential body of work that explores constructions of social space and the natural world by inviting physical interaction and sensory experience. He is most known for monumental installations that incorporate organic shapes and materials – spices, sand and shells among them— to engage all five senses, producing a new type of sensory perception that renegotiates boundaries between artwork and viewer, the organic and manmade, the natural, spiritual and social worlds. Neto works around the space of the body, where the viewer becomes part of the work and vice versa and they become physically immersed in the installation.
In this work body and skin, Neto continues his investigation between the human world and natural world. This monumental photograph shows a moss-covered tree and cliff face on Cagarra, an island off the coast of Rio De Janeiro. Combined to form a single image, the two scenes invite a close examination of texture and the materiality of the landscapes. The title body and skin evinces Neto’s belief that there’s no separation between the body and nature; moss becomes a surrogate for skin, as the tree and cliff are rendered as bodies.
This work was included in Ernesto Neto. notes, stones and dots, an exhibition of the artist’s work at Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin in 2013. This show focused, with Neto’s typical attention to detail and sensitivity to material, on the relationship between the body and nature, juxtaposing photographs, sculptures and plants.