Veins of gold

Veins of Gold draws from the Amazon as a living territory—both river network and organism. The carved lines form a shifting cartography that may be read as fluvial systems and as veins beneath the skin of the earth. The image originates from a drawing hand-carved into a 3 mm acrylic plate. I applied ink with a roller, settling only on the raised surfaces, and printed using an etching press. Prior to printing, I adhered metallic leaf to the paper, creating a luminous ground onto which the relief image was transferred. Conceived as a unique print, I produced only one definitive impression. The interaction between the metallic surface and the pressure of the press generates a materially singular result. Gold functions not as ornament but as material memory, recalling its sacred meaning for Abya Yala’s Indigenous cultures before colonial extraction transformed it into an object of greed. The Amazon appears not as landscape, but as living, resilient energy—still in motion.