Mirage
by Ansei Uchima
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
- robynbuntin
Description
Mirage is a woodblock print exploring the visual phenomenon of heat distortion — the shimmering, unstable image that appears over hot ground, promising water or shelter where none exists. As a subject for abstract printmaking, the mirage is compelling because it is already an abstraction in nature: a real optical event that produces an unreal image, a landscape that dissolves its own solidity. Uchima's treatment likely uses wavering forms, uncertain edges, and color that seems to vibrate or shift, the woodblock medium's capacity for precise registration paradoxically employed to depict something that refuses to hold still.
More Prints by Ansei Uchima
More Landscapes Prints
Lake Kugushi in Wakasa Province (Wakasa Kugushiko), from the series Souvenirs of Travel I (Tabi miyage dai isshu)"
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Autumn Maple Leaves at Takao, from the album Eight Views of Kyoto (Kyôto hakkei)
Woodblock print
The Beach at Kaiganji in Sanuki Province (Sanuki Kaiganji no hama), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen)"
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
Tea Kettle, section of a sheet from the series "Mirror of Stone Rubbings of Views of the Provinces" (Kohon meihitsu ishizuri kagami)
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Mirage was created by Ansei Uchima (内間安瑆).
Mirage depicts landscapes and abstract.