Italian artist Davide D’Elia’s installation Antivegetativa he painted the curving walls of Rome’s Ex Elettrofonica gallery with bright ‘Tiffany blue’ paint as if the entire space were dipped in it. The paint is of the anti-fouling variety, used to protect the hull of ships and infused with poisonous compounds needed to keep sea life from taking hold.

Anti-fouling paint of the thick variety is normally applied as a coating for the hulls of old ships and is particular in that it seals out plant and animal organisms to the point of eliminating every possible form of life. The result is an acidic and unreal space, immersed in the abysses of the a material that erases everything, including space, time and life.