Superficial
Adam Lowe 2004

Superficial is a reverie on the surface of three religious artefacts depicting the virgin, Christ and their meeting in the garden after his death.
The concern in each is the materiality of the object and the use of reflected and transmitted light to materialise the immaterial.

The three images are based on:
Aninimo: Madonna with Child painted in Spain in the 18th century. Oil on Canvas with extensive surface damage.

Antonio de Santander () An enconchada from Mexico painted in about 1678 depicting Jesus and the two Mary’s in the garden. It is almost certainly the pradella of an altarpiece and came from the collection of the Duke of Devonshire.

Anonimo: An embroidery of the Crucifix of Christ probably made in Holland in the XVII century. The embroidered figure has been cut from its original surface and fitted to a piece of velvet in the C19th. It came from the collection of G Leuwens, Director of the museum of Art in Nymegen.

Each image was laser scanned using Factum Arte´s Seti Scanner. All artefacts, noise and evidence of the scanning process were retained.
The scanned data was then routed into polyurethane at a resolution of 100 microns. Superficial 2 and 3 were also produced as lithophanes (an image produced by light which uses the opacity and thickness of the material to produce the image).