The Last of What Has Passed | MARK GRAVER Printmaking - Video - Sound

The Last of What Has Passed, the First of That Which Comes is an on-going series of archival digital inkjet prints inspired by a quote from Leonardo Da Vinci who said:

“In rivers, the water that you touch is the last of what has passed and the first of that which comes; so with present time”.

So With Present Time I - inkjet, 260x705mm - 2015 — So With Present Time I – inkjet, 260x705mm – 2015

So With Present Time II - inkjet, 260x705mm - 2015 — So With Present Time II – inkjet, 260x705mm – 2015

The images, begun in December 2015, are mainly sourced from the Kerikeri River in New Zealand and from the River Ver in my home town of St.Albans, England and there are plans to continue the series using bodies of water in other countries and locations much in the way the Umbra Sumus series uses shadow.

So With Present Time III - inkjet, 260x705mm - 2016 — So With Present Time III – inkjet, 260x705mm – 2016

So With Present Time IV - inkjet, 260x705mm - 2016 — So With Present Time IV – inkjet, 260x705mm – 2016

The work also makes reference to the river and water drawings of Leonardo through the linear forms of the prints. I first started looking at Leonardo’s water drawings when researching Cy Twombly’s work for my Master’s Thesis in 1995 and was interested in how some of Twombly’s seemingly random circular mark making made reference to Leonardo’s acutely observed works.

The Last of What Has Passed I – inkjet 200x200mm – 2015

The Last of What Has Passed II – inkjet 200x200mm – 2015

The Last of What Has Passed III – inkjet 200x200mm – 2015

The Last of What Has Passed IV – inkjet 200x200mm – 2015

The Last of What Has Passed V – inkjet 200x200mm – 2015

The Last of What Has Passed VI – inkjet 200x200mm – 2015

The Last of What Has Passed VII – inkjet 200x200mm – 2015

The Last of What Has Passed VIII – inkjet 200x200mm – 2015

The Last of What Has Passed IX – inkjet 200x200mm – 2015

The Last of What Has Passed X – inkjet 200x200mm – 2015

The Last of What Has Passed XI – inkjet 200x200mm – 2015

The Last of What Has Passed XII – inkjet 200x200mm – 2015

Another interest explored in these works is the notion alluded to in Leonardo’s quote of the impossibility of stilling time. The works begin as photographs, taken in a certain place at a certain time, as all photographs are.

The First of That Which Comes I - inkjet 329x440mm - 2015 — The First of That Which Comes I – inkjet 329x440mm – 2015

The First of That Which Comes II - inkjet 329x440mm - 2015 — The First of That Which Comes II – inkjet 329x440mm – 2015

The First of That Which Comes III - inkjet 329x440mm - 2015 — The First of That Which Comes III – inkjet 329x440mm – 2015

There is the sense of time being captured and stopped in the moment of pressing the shutter. The photographs are then manipulated, layered, printed and thus become re-presented time, place and memory.