LUZ - Decay and Transformation - Florian Foerster - Gravura Brasileira - SP

Luz — Decay andTransformation

The following 15 prints,from a series of 22, were made from the same copper plate
between 2011 and 2013. The series plays on impressions and memories ofthe
Jardim da Luz in São Paulo by revisiting the same printing plate, an action similar
to repeatedly visiting the park and being drawn deeper and deeperinto its observed
and imagined atmospheres.
The 25 x 25 centimeter plate wasrepeatedly etched and a minimum ofthree proofs
were printed of every stage. Each etching destroyed the plate’s previousstate. As
the density and layering ofthe print increased, the density ofthe plate decreased,
until the plate’s almost complete disintegration. The distance between the first and
the final image recordsthe response of the copper plate to more than 80 hours of
exposure to the corrosiveness of acid baths. The prints also show how the initial
image decays, but at the same time transformsinto entirely new forms.
Decay and Transformation forms part of a larger, ongoing group of
works—consisting of drawings, prints, writings and paintings—investigating and
re-imagining the Jardim da Luz.I began the seriesshortly after my first visit to the
Jardim da Luz in 1996.
Florian Foerster