Love Beyond Reason

'Love Beyond Reason' is a 2017 mokuhanga work that pairs an emotionally charged title with insect subject matter, a combination characteristic of Vollmer's ecological series from this period. The pairing of love — irrational, excessive, devoted — with insects suggests an attention to the non-human that exceeds utilitarian concern, an affect extended beyond its conventional objects. The insect subjects in Vollmer's work of this period are often rendered with close observational precision, their forms studied and respected rather than aestheticized or dismissed. Mokuhanga's water-based pigments on washi, built through patient layering and baren pressing, are well suited to the fine-grained detailing that insect forms require, with bokashi gradients adding tonal dimension to wing surfaces, segmented bodies, and translucent membranes. The work belongs alongside 'All the Way to the Bank' and 'Pests of Public Importance' as part of a sustained inquiry into human relationships with insects and the politics of which creatures are deemed worthy of care.