Photograms treated with selenium on painted decorative vinyl paper

Spain 1993

Image above: Joan Fontcuberta, Palimpsests: Le Jardin d’ Hoschedé à Montgeron, 1993, photogram treated with selenium over an original reproduction of Claude Monet (museum poster), 53 x 57 cm

"The Palimpsests series is made up of photograms that use printed images showing different nature motifs. Catalog covers, decorative painted paper or commercial wrapping paper — they all make an initial body of work which is later covered with an emulsion that is used for the making of contact prints. Fontcuberta then places real vegetables, flowers or small dissected birds over these cultural representations of nature. The palimpsests are therefore constructed by two images. The first image, the base of the base, is merely iconic, given that it makes the object visible via a simple relationship of similarity; the second one — the print left by real object — has been directly affected by the material that has been deposited for an instant over the medium, in a way that that physical contact acquires an intense initial value in spite of remaining unrecognizable." (http://angelsbarcelona.com/en/artists/joan-fontcuberta/projects/palimsestos/155)

Joan Fontcuberta, born 1955 in Barcelona, lives and works in Barcelona.

Link

https://fontcuberta.com/