I adopted silkscreen printing as the method to transfer the photographic image onto the wood. This was done by testing multiple ink mixtures that are suitable for both scree printing as well as pyrolysis. Early tests revealed several factors that will need to be tweaked - consistency of ink, mesh size of the screens and also the thickness of ink applied onto the wood. The conversion from photo negatives to silkscreen also needs to be controlled digitally. Each of these tests were time consuming and the results can only be reviewed after the firing process, which itself was a technical challenge on its own.  

As expected, different species of wood yield different results. I need to test the thickness of each type of wood, its thickness and size in relation to the time and firing sequence of the kiln. There were so many failures - broken pieces of charcoal and images that are not visible at all, some just barely. However after many attempts, I finally found the exact combinations I was looking for. This resulted in fully intact pieces of charcoal and visible and clear images. 

The images chosen were all photographed 15-20 years ago and all contained light leaks - often seen as a technical failure in photography. I consciously made this decision to showcase these visual failures as a dialogue to the material failures during the process of pyrolysis.  

Titled Carbon Copy: Leaks, this series of 9 carbon copy photos are encased with walnut frames with a light source positioned between the charcoal pieces and the frame, showing light 'leaking' out. 

The showcase and exhibition was held on 13th January 2026.