-
Details
- Place where the work was made
-
Japan
- Period
- Heisei period 1989 - → Japan
- Date
- December 1989
- Media category
- Materials used
- screenprint
- Edition
- 7/10
- Dimensions
- 62.7 x 93.6 cm image; 80.3 x 120.0 cm sheet
- Signature & date
Signed and dated l.r., pencil "Dec '89 Shima".
- Credit
- Gift of the artist 1993
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 458.1993
- Copyright
- © SHIMA Kuniichi
- Artist information
-
Shima Kuniichi
Works in the collection
- Share
-
About
Born in Tokyo and educated at Tama Art University, Shima is now a Professor at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts, admired for his joyfully free and colourful prints of random shapes. Shima wants to capture the shape of sound - 'just as Mozart expressed joy through music, I use colour and forms in the same way'.
The titles of Shima's prints hold the key to their method of creation. Each letter indicates the process involved: SP=silkscreen print; C=collage and D=drawing. In a print such as this one he began by composing a collage of torn papers, over which he 'drew' with brown ink. He then prepared a series of stencils, one for each colour area, to give the illusion of ragged paper edges, with a final stencil repeating the calligraphic `drawing'.
In making such a print there might be as many as nine successive proofs, and this very process of continual growth and change fascinates Shima. He wants to tease out the questions of image perception: at proof stage is an image complete or only a fragment? Is each image independent or only a part of a whole and subject to change before our very eyes? Is the print complete or only forecasting yet another direction? In creating his prints through these stages, Shima expresses by shapes and forms the process of the birth of languages. Through his work he wants, in his own words, to preserve the human quality in an over-informed society.
Jackie Menzies, Contemporary Japanese Prints: The Urban Bonsai, 1992, pg. 88.
-
Places
Where the work was made
Japan
-
Exhibition history
Shown in 1 exhibition
The Urban Bonsai, Queensland Art Gallery, South Brisbane, 04 Mar 1992–04 May 1992
The Urban Bonsai, National Art Gallery, Wellington, Wellington, 20 Jun 1992–09 Aug 1992
The Urban Bonsai, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch, 12 Sep 1992–29 Oct 1992
The Urban Bonsai, Manawatu Art Gallery, New Zealand, 13 Nov 1992–10 Jan 1993
The Urban Bonsai, The George Adams Gallery, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne, 18 Mar 1993–25 Apr 1993
The Urban Bonsai, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 08 May 1993–01 Aug 1993
The Urban Bonsai, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, Emu Plains, 11 Mar 1994–24 Apr 1994
The Urban Bonsai, Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra, 19 May 1994–19 Jun 1994
The Urban Bonsai, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown, 15 Jul 1994–21 Aug 1994
The Urban Bonsai, Bank Art Museum Moree, Moree, 11 Nov 1994–24 Dec 1994
The Urban Bonsai, Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre, Murwillumbah, 01 Feb 1995–05 Mar 1995
-
Bibliography
Referenced in 1 publication
-
Jackie Menzies, Contemporary Japanese Prints : The Urban Bonsai, Sydney, 1992, 86 (colour illus.), 88. cat. no. 53
-