Ginkgo Anew

Acrylic on paper.

Depicting the imprints of three fallen ginkgo biloba tree leaves.

The ginkgo is one of the oldest living tree species and represents for me a symbol of resilience and renewal: it is the first tree to sprout again after the Hiroshima bombing, has a high pollution tolerance, and survived despite being believed extinct. The imprints awake both the absence of the actual leaves, now long gone, and the presence of their captured traces.

At the same time, the technique of gel plate printing is in itself a history of renewal. Although largely considered a novel technique, gel printing is based on a 19th century form of printing called hectography, invented in 1860 and which soon fell into obscurity due to the fragile and difficult to use gelatine plates. In 2011, Joan Bess and Lou Ann Gleason innovated this process through the invention of a durable gelatine plate, sparking a resurgence in this once abandoned art technique.

Ginkgo Anew captures the idea of renewal, and has been featured as the cover of the STS literary and art magazine Fulcrum Review issue 5, whose theme was new beginnings.