“Meltwater”
Artist’s book / self-published photozine. Entirely handmade.
Meltwater is a visual exploration at the intersection of natural processes, scientific texts, and collective sociopolitical memory. The project is grounded in a physical phenomenon: as contaminated water freezes, the pure liquid crystallizes first, displacing all toxic impurities into the very center. If this ice is simply melted back down, the water remains just as polluted; true purification requires the physical extraction of this destructive core.
The same mechanism operates within society and culture. Without a profound reckoning with the past, the system merely shifts between states of matter, trapping us within an unchanging, cold cycle.
The project is designed as a multilayered, interactive object. Its concept unfolds not only through film photography but through physical engagement with the viewer—shifting from the open Japanese binding and the chaotic, knotted reverse side of the hand-embroidered title, to hidden envelopes containing authentic laboratory reports on heavy metals and a water filter stitched directly into the page. These elements culminate in a final spread of moving river ice, where a concrete bridge pier stands like a coffin—a metaphor for human existence gripped by a frozen structure that offers no resolution, only a drift down the waters of Lethe into total oblivion.
Size: A5
Paper: Eco-friendly Favini CRUSH CORN (produced using agro-industrial corn by-products)
Binding: Traditional handmade Japanese binding, title hand-embroidered with thread
Interactive features: Stitched-in water filter, hidden envelopes containing laboratory analysis reports
This preview features a selected sequence of spreads from the book
