2018
33 x 33 x 4 cm
Mineral pigments, rock salt, coal on rice paper (fermented type) mounted on wooden board

In his canvas salt and dust, the hand grand natural pigments and salt dedicate to the beauty of fragility of pure icy head of the high snow mountains. When observing under the natural light, people see the shining ice in mountain Everest far away from the routine life. The blue canvas depicts earth underneath the melted glaciers. The artist coated the canvas with more than 39 layers of pure mineral pigments and paints. From the first glazing, it is dark black earth jets into the eyes. However like the light before ombre before dawn, the pure blue color slightly penetrates through the surface from the underneath. It brings hope and happiness of life in the deep sorrow of the land.

Comte associates his use of pure black pigment with the dust (cryoconite) that has settled on so many of the world’s melting glaciers, blown in by strong winds and accelerating the ice’s melting process; it can also be interpreted as a metaphor for the decay currently happening in many of the icy areas of the world.