Veils, 2025

Installation view: Midnight Zone, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2026. Photo by Jens Ziehe

Veils is a series of photolithographs originating from underwater photographs of living coral reefs. Produced using limestone printing plates and pigments derived from pulverized coral gathered at the sites depicted, the works are printed in four restrained, off-white layers that verge on disappearance. The process mirrors geological deposition: a gradual accumulation of calcium carbonate reflecting deep time.

By converting coral into pigment, Veils collapses sight and site into a single frame, making the image a material trace rather than a simple representation. Lithography reasserts its origin in ancient seabed limestone, embedding the ocean into the surface as a visual sediment holding memory, matter and time in suspension.

All images are ©Julian Charrière / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

Installation view: Midnight Zone, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2026. Photo by Marek Kruszewski
Veils | Theonella Swinhoe and Veils | Muricea Elongata, 2025