In 1968, a bronze sculpture was attached to a tree in Dallas.

Giuseppe Penone's hand is so strong that it can squeeze a tree! Of course, we mean his sculpture in the shape of a bronze hand. The Italian artist installed it on a tree at the Nasher Sculpture Center (Dallas, USA) in 1968. After so many decades, this spectacle has become even more exciting.

The sculpture was made on the basis of a cast of the arm and forearm of Penone himself. Then the artist attached his hand to the seedling, and throughout all these years the tree literally grew around the statue. Today, it looks like fingers squeeze the trunk and dig into the plant.

“I feel the breath of the forest and I hear the slow, unstoppable growth of trees,” wrote Penone in 1968. “I breathe in unison with the green world around me and I feel the flow of wood around my arm when I bring it to the trunk.” At the moment, it is difficult to predict what impact the metal will have on the tree in the long run, but the contrast between cold metal and organic wood is simply mesmerizing!