All Animals Are Leaving

All Animals Are Leaving 

けものたちはみな去ってゆく

Artist
YUKI, Rei
由木 礼
Birth Year
1928
Death Year
2003
Date
1971 
Technique, Material, Format
woodcut 
Dimension
60.2 x 49.5 cm 
Edition
21/35
Category
Print by Japanese Artist 
Inventory Number
93-PRJ-075 

Clouds race across the sky, their shadows fluttering on the ground, while vegetation grows. Looking at this image feels a bit like watching a time-lapse video. And the title reinforces this impression.
Assuming the "animals" in the title includes humans, then it is just these buildings and plants that remain, and in some distant future they too will weather and die. In this way the work seems to capture a vast expanse of time. Look closely and you notice that the light-colored surfaces are made up of fine lines. Yuki Rei has used a hand-made baren to capture the rough texture of his plywood printing blocks, and it is this worn texture that lends his work a sense of the passing of time and also a related undertone of desolation.
(SAKAMOTO Kyoko)

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