Messua Wolff

Messua Wolff

As above, so below, 2023.

Charcoal ink, carob, logwood and iron sulfate on canvas, charcoal, wood and clay, 210×320. 

The hermetic aphorism “as above, so below” refers to the correspondences between macrocosm/microcosm and different planes of reality. This work belongs to a series investigating alchemy prompted by the slow transformation processes in my practice, particularly through colour-making, in which substances are recycled to birth new forms and states. Black here references the first alchemical phase.

The work rises from decomposition, destruction and waste. First, a canvas is buried with leftover homegrown beetroot to imprint decomposition and nonhuman processes. Leftover wood and discarded rudimentary drawing tools are charred. Initially motivated by the need for colour, it then becomes part of the piece. Charcoal is the index of the fire that took place, marking the starting point of my work and mythologizing the invention of pigment. Carob dye and handmade ink are layered on the canvas over weeks. From the residue of mould and ashes emerges a glimpse of the cosmos.