Trykplade til naturselvtryk 1833

This is Peter Larsen Kyhl's 'Trykplade til naturselvtryk', or 'Printing Plate for Natural Self-Printing', made using natural self-printing. Here we see a fragment of the natural world meticulously transferred onto paper. The essence of the material, a delicate leaf perhaps, is captured, revealing the artist's attempt to seize and preserve a fleeting moment of nature. This echoes the ancient practice of collecting relics. In medieval times, religious relics—fragments of saints—were believed to hold miraculous power. Similarly, Kyhl's print operates as a secular relic, preserving a piece of nature, imbued with its own form of vital energy. There is a melancholic sentiment, born out of our subconscious awareness of mortality, both of the organic matter and of our own existence. It’s a visual memento mori, a reminder of life's transience, rendered with both scientific precision and emotional depth. The act of preserving mirrors the innate human desire to defy time, to capture and hold onto what is inevitably ephemeral. And so, the print becomes a poignant meditation on the ephemeral nature of existence.