mel chin

Revival Ramp


1996
hard and soft-ground etching, engraving, photoetching and lithograph on Arches Cover paper, printed by Vinalhaven Press
edition of 20
30 x 30 inches

Revival Ramp is based on a drawing Chin created while installing eco-related artworks in Munich, Germany. The image traces possible courses of ecology on a spiraling “ramp” of time: starting with Leonardo Da Vinci’s A Copse of Trees (c. 1500), ascending through the industrial revolution, and trifurcating into three futures. The history of a hyperaccumulator plant is ever present, from it’s naturally occurring place to its use to detoxify polluted land. At a critical bend in the ramp, in contemporary time, Revival Field is sited. Afterwards the scenarios of a better, greener world “reviving” the trees of Leonardo, or of an alternate path moving to an industrial wasteland or an unknown bleak future with a black sun, are projected.