Migrating Gyre

'Migrating Gyre' from 2008 draws its title from oceanography: a gyre is a large system of circulating ocean currents, and the great Pacific garbage patch occupies one such gyre, giving the term both scientific and ecological meaning. Vollmer's abstract treatment of this subject likely renders the circular, spiraling logic of oceanic circulation through compositional movement across the [washi](/glossary/washi) surface, using the layered color washes of mokuhanga to suggest the scale and depth of water systems in motion. The word 'migrating' introduces displacement into what is already a system of movement, implying that even the patterns of circulation are themselves shifting — a reading consistent with concerns about ocean ecology and climate. The 2008 date places the work in Vollmer's productive mid-career period and alongside other works that investigate systemic forces: 'High Tension,' 'Crossing Ground,' 'Attractor.' The gyre as form — neither fixed nor fully free — resonates with the constraints of the mokuhanga registration system itself.