Almost Trace by Despina Charitonidi presents on one side a vegetal form created through a chemical process where the object is exposed on salt surface to the sun. The process, similar to cyanotype, is based on the fundamental principle of photography where sodium chloride and silver nitrate react together to reveal the light impacts on a surface. The reverse side of the edition consists of a close-up of the enamel of a ceramic. The pigments become floating cells, revealing the chemical operation at the heart of the constitution of the color and appearance of the artist’s ceramic.

In Almost Trace, the printing and chemical process is put into perspective. The object disappears to leave the trace of its chemical reaction, the result of which is subsequently realized in screen printing, a technique where the different layers of colors are separated and then exposed on a frame whose mesh is coated with a photosensitive product. All the surfaces left exposed solidify in the light, blocking the ink, which only deposits on the covered shapes. The algae initially used in Charitonidi’s proposal was thus first a solid form whose surface obstructed the sun’s rays, and then an absence of matter letting light pass through and solidifying the fibers of the screen printing frame.

By working on variations of elements from our natural environment, the artist questions our society’ relationship with the habitat, and human interferences.