Arte Povera

Soil, rope and wax on a gallery floor, placed as carefully as a drawing.

Resist beauty. The temptation is to light the rope like a product and it kills the work. Place things once, with intent, and photograph the placement. Leave more floor than object. If a frame could be a rustic interiors spread, take something out until it cannot.

Director's note

Leave with every frame on this list.

Shot list

1. 01Wide shot of a white gallery room with a low mound of packed dark soil on the floor and a single coil of thick rope beside it, high side window light, nothing else
2. 02Close detail of a raw timber beam with a rag knotted around it, beeswax pooled and hardened on the wood, fibres visible
3. 03Medium shot of a cut branch leaning against a concrete wall, its shadow the only mark on the surface, a small handwritten paper label on the floor
4. 04Overhead shot of stones, a sheet of oxidised iron and a folded grey blanket laid out in a loose grid on bare floorboards
5. 05Wide shot of hands lifting a slab of wax from a workbench, the studio behind them plain and unstyled, sacks and buckets along the wall

Natural light only, ideally from high windows so it falls across the floor and picks up texture. Overcast is better than sun. No reflectors, no polish, no rim light. The materials should look the way they look.

Light

Scout these before anything else.

Locations

1. 01A white-walled gallery or empty warehouse with a concrete or plank floor
2. 02A sculptor's studio with sacks of material and a workbench
3. 03A courtyard or barn with packed-earth floor and stone walls
4. 04An abandoned industrial interior with rust and standing water

Undyed linen, worn wool, work aprons, plain boots. Earth and grey. Hands visible and unmanicured. No jewellery, no styling that suggests a lifestyle shoot.

Wardrobe