Growing Universe is a limited edition of 30 silkscreen prints created based on the narrative visuals of Multiverse. The audiovisual installation explores the evolution of infinite possible universes through the use of generative graphics and sounds, exploiting Lee Smolin’s theorization of the existence of the so-called multiverse. To realise these works, we collaborated with long-time friends and local printmaking studio called Medulla.

Growing Universes has been realised with the same technique of the unique silkscreen print by the same name. This series of silkscreen prints features one of the structures that appear during the development of the audiovisual installation. The visuals of Multiverse are characterised by minuscule particles, which need to be reproduced on devices that support a very high definition of details. The need was to maintain this characteristic of the work also when transported onto paper: for this reason, high-resolution silkscreen printing frames were chosen, featuring 100 threads per linear centimetre, each with a diameter of 40 microns.

Medulla always works with colours that they obtain internally, either from organic or inorganic ingredients. For Growing Universes, they also worked for the first time using a white-on-black technique, which required them to carry out research concerning the right pigment ingredients to use. They employed a colour that was employed in the past for the preparation of canvases and boards in iconography: a fine, white powder obtained from ancient deposits of seashells, which are ground, left in decantation and dried. Once the powder is treated as a pigment, it becomes a paste of the right density to be used in silkscreen printing. 

Another important characteristic of the featured figure is its three-dimensionality: for this reason, the studio carried out more tests on the opacity and brightness of the white to create various intensities of shade. The next step was to break down the image into levels, each to be applied with a different shade of white to maintain the three-dimensionality of the figure. It was also necessary to take into account the characteristic of the colour and its transparency, exploiting the overprinting effect to lighten some areas of the image. The only way to keep these features under control was by observation, closely supervising every step of the creation process. 

Eventually, the image was broken down into four layers of printing using three whites of different intensities.