Published 26 February 2024 in News
Mokuhanga Sisters 'Masaban' at 5th International Mokuhanga Conference – Echizen
Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture, Japan
Imadate Art Center and Echizen Washi Village
4 - 6 April 2024
The Mokuhanga Sisters is developing a new collaborative project titled: 'Masaban'. The suite of nine prints will be exhibited in April 2024, coinciding with the fifth International Mokuhanga Conference at Udatsu Museum in Echizen, Japan.
In this series of work, paper is our muse. Working with a half sheet '(masaban)' of washi paper and sumi ink, each artist in the Mokuhanga Sisters collective works in the technique of mokuhanga to create a woodblock print. Mokuhanga is an ancient technique of waterbased woodblock printing, where imagery is carved into wood, inked and transferred to the paper by applying pressuring with a hand held disk called a baren. The result is a suite of nine woks on paper, each printed in an edition of 5. Each sheet of paper for this project was made by artisans from the village of Echizen using traditional papermaking methods. Through the materials of paper, wood, and ink made from soot, we explore the color black. The nine prints exhibited together explore the absence of color, positive and negative space, texture and form, line and shape. As artists we consider the physicality of materials and what it means to make work by hand.
Who we are:
Between 2017 - 2019, nine artists met by chance at the Mokuhanga Innovation Laboratory in Kawaguchi-ko, Japan and catalyzed the formation of the Mokuhanga Sisters print collective. We are: Katie Baldwin (Alabama, USA), Patty Hudak (Vermont, USA), Mariko Jesse (UK/USA/HK), Kate MacDonagh (Ireland), Yoonmi Nam (USA/Korea), University of Kansas), Natasha Norman (South Africa), Mia O (Japan/Korea), Lucy May Schofield (UK) and Melissa Schulenberg (USA).
For more information about the The Mokuhanga Sisters please visit their website here
For more information about the 2024 International Mokuhanga Conference please navigate to their website here