Ideal Structures for a Dubious Future (Spiral Tower)

"Ideal Structures for a Dubious Future" comprises seven prints that reflect López's interest in architecture, urban studies, as well as social, political, cultural, geographical, and economic history. She draws from multiple sources to create the buildings depicted, which she terms "hypothetical hybrids" in that they combine elements from existing architecture, buildings that are found only in the imagination, and visionary structures that were never realized and therefore are known only through sketches, architectural models, and written descriptions.

To create these prints, López invented an innovative--and dangerous process--that she has only used for this series: explosive intaglio, which, as the name implies, involves the use of powerful explosives. She created hand-cut stencils, which she placed on copper etching plates and, working in a remote area in the desert, López subjected the plates to a series of blasts created by dangerous explosives, which then imprinted the images from the stencils, as well as splatters and other marks that reflect the process of creation, on the surface of the plates. In the words of the artist, "The buildings are created through a moment of violent transformation, their possibility and destruction envisioned simultaneously."