On Paper: Choosing Giclée for Space and Time

On Paper looks at how Giclée printing shapes my practice, turning code and pixels into prints that carry presence and permanence.

by

Kris Cirkuit

On Paper

There’s something quietly important about paper. For all the time I spend with code, algorithms, and generative systems, in the end the work becomes something physical — a print you can hold, frame, and live with. The choice of paper is part of the artwork.

When preparing Space and Time for print, I did a round of test runs on different Giclée papers. Giclée printing, for anyone who’s not come across the term, is essentially the gold standard for fine art prints. It’s a high-quality digital process that uses pigment-based archival inks on equally archival paper. The printers are large-format, extremely precise, and capable of handling a huge colour gamut — which means they can translate the detail and subtlety of digital work into something that will last decades without fading or yellowing. Done right, a Giclée print is as close to the original source as possible, with the added weight and presence of physical form.

For my tests, I tried several papers from Hahnemühle, one of the most respected names in the field. Each one has its own surface, tone, and feel:

• Hahnemühle Pearl: Smooth with a subtle orange-peel texture and a bright white base. It gives strong detail and vibrant colour reproduction, with a satin finish that adds depth — almost like the richness of an oil painting.

  
  

• Hahnemühle Baryta: A pure white base with a silky reflective coating, perfect for high-contrast images and fluorescent tones. It holds detail beautifully, producing striking blacks and brilliant whites.

  
  

• Hahnemühle German Etching: A heavyweight, textured paper with a slightly warm tone. It absorbs the ink deeply, producing strong colours and rich blacks. The texture gives prints a crafted, handmade quality that feels closer to drawing or printmaking than to photography.

  
  

All of them produced excellent results — accurate, detailed, and full of life. But in the end, I chose Hahnemühle German Etching for Space and Time, just as I had for the Tides series. It holds ink in a way that makes colours feel deep and tangible, and the tactile surface of the paper is hard to beat. There’s something about it that feels real, as though the work has been carried across from the digital into a crafted object with its own presence.

Paper may seem like a technical detail, but for me it’s part of how the work communicates. Space and Time is about change, rhythm, and the in-between — and having it printed on German Etching gives the images that same sense of depth and resonance in physical form.

In the end, choosing paper is as much about feeling as it is about technical quality. When I held the first print of Space and Time on German Etching, I knew it was right — not just because the colours were rich or the detail was sharp, but because the paper itself carried a kind of presence. It reminded me that even though my work begins in code and pixels, what I want to share is something you can touch, keep, and live alongside. That’s where it becomes real for me.