Homenagem a Luciano Fabro (Homage to Luciano Fabro), 2009 is an emblematic work by Jimmie Durham who was inspired by Fabro as well as by the work of the Romanian Constantin Brancusi. His attempt was to capture and reproduce the essence of things through a sculptural process that seeks to bring out its actual reality, the idea underlying the object rather than its visible form. The sculpture was conceived and realized in 2009 for his first solo show at Sprovieri/Progetti gallery in Rio De Janeiro. The artwork is fashioned out of the dismembered and reassembled timber from a Brazilian tropical tree. A striking piece of wood creates a surreal setting; the richness of wood with its scents, nodes and stratifications of time, the tactile variety of its texture, capable of communicating the essence of their being and transfer into the space where it is placed part of the history of the places from which it comes and the events it has witnessed in the flowing of the years. In this way, the viewers can experience the reality of the ambiance created thanks to the primordial and empathic relationship that develops from contact with the material. The basis of Durham’s artistic practice lies in the attempt to deconstruct the concepts of European culture by giving the essence of the object the power to tell its own story. The principles of celebratory monumentality, permanence and universality of architecture and sculpture, for centuries regarded as means for affirming the identity of a population and its culture, are rejected to free the object from the human urge to control its nature.