Van der Auwera's Memento series is an ongoing collaboration with technicians in a newspaper production plant started in 2016. At that time, works were created using images that had appeared in the paper and using the paper's offset plates and imaging equipment to create layered exposures activated by light refractions. Over time, more liberties were taken with the process. Plates were mounted together. Images were enlarged. They were also eventually selected from niche digital media and imposed into the newspaper format. Ink was rolled across them with the paper's rotary press. Capitol Black is part of a line in the series dealing with the end of presidential terms and putting a 21st century spin on paintings of political events like those by Delacroix, Goya or Rubens. Instead of painting with oil, however, Van der Auwera hijacks the vocabulary and mechanized processes of mass media.