Phyllida Shelley

Phyllida Shelley is among Andrea G. Artz's mokuhanga portraits, a series in which the artist transposes photographic studies of named sitters into Japanese water-based woodblock prints. The composition presents the figure as the sole subject, framed against the unprinted washi without architectural or landscape setting. Mokuhanga production requires multiple cherry blocks, one per colour pass, inked with rice paste and water-soluble pigment and printed by hand with a baren onto dampened paper; kentō registration aligns the successive impressions, while bokashi allows graduated rather than flat tone across the face and clothing. The technique gives the print a matte, absorbed surface distinct from both digital photographic output and oil-based Western relief printing. The work belongs to Artz's broader interdisciplinary investigation of the human figure, which extends from her early training as a portrait photographer through her current sculptural and installation practice involving folded three-dimensional paper figures. These mokuhanga portraits function as a planar counterpart to those dimensional works, recording the sitter's presence through layered hand-printing rather than constructed paper form.