Copper Nail 
and the Swallow




Examining humankind’s relationship to nature through the material history of copper. A copper nail driven into a living tree interrupts its growth, eventually killing it and displacing the ecosystem it supports. 


Installation view, side A
Primary sculpural field 
2017



Copper Nail and the Swallow
2016 - 2017 
Alabaster, asphalt, copper, stone (Italy, Arizona, Saudi Arabia), textile, oil on canvas
Approx. 16ft x 14ft; installation footprint based on the artist’s studio
As habitats collapse, life reorganizes—the swallow relocates to human structures, where architecture begins to replace ecology.

Working across stone, metal, asphalt, and paint, the installation brings together materials tied to systems of extraction, infrastructure, and circulation, forming a field where natural and industrial forms collapse into one another.

The spatial dimensions of the installation mirror those of the artist’s studio at the time of its making, situating the work within the conditions of its own production.

A tree constructed from disc rotors appears as a mechanical surrogate, while stones sourced from Arizona and Saudi Arabia—sites of copper and oil production—are split and held in tension by a single copper nail. Asphalt shifts between ground and false geology, blurring distinctions between natural and constructed matter.

In the background, a large-scale painting references the coffered ceiling of the Pantheon and its reinterpretation in the Washington, D.C. Metro, linking ancient and modern infrastructures of power, movement, and control. The installation’s dimensions mirror those of the artist’s studio at the time of its making, situating the work within the conditions of its own production.



Disc roters stacked along copper column, forming a vertical structure with a small figure at its base.

Untitled (Plate I)
Disc roters, copper tubes, metal plate, alabaster stone
       
Untitled (Plate I detail)
Alabaster, automobile discarded metal, copper pipe
                     
           


Untitled (Plate II)
Asphalt, alabaster, Saudia Arabia desert Stone, metal base, copper nail 



Copper nail balancing asphalt and alabaster.



Untitled (Plate II)
Back view
Asphalt, alabaster, Saudia Arabia desert Stone, metal base, copper nail 




Installation view, side B
Textile and suspneded elements opposite primary scultpural field 
2017




Suspended alabaster stones swaring under weight.      

Untitled (Plate IV)
Metal, alabster, copper wire






Asphalt collected from a construction site adjacent to the studio, alongside discarded brake rotors sourced from a nearby metal scrapyard.

        





* Restriced access
© Jenna Basso Pietrobon

France — Italy