History

The title suggests Stewart's engagement with Kyoto's deep temporal layers, a recurring concern in his work since settling in the city in 1986. Executed in mokuhanga — the Japanese woodblock technique using water-based pigments, washi paper, and a baren for hand-burnishing — the print likely reproduces a weathered architectural detail, a relic, or an aged surface that condenses long passages of time into a single visual register. Stewart's sensitivity to gradations of light and shadow, developed across his etching and lithography practice, translates in mokuhanga to controlled bokashi passages where pigment is brushed unevenly onto the block to produce soft tonal transitions. Shown at Hangaten, Kyoto's international woodblock print exhibition, the work places Stewart within a community of practitioners — many foreign-born — who have adopted mokuhanga as a contemporary medium while drawing on its Edo-period lineage. The reflective title aligns with his broader interest in still and worn objects rather than figural or narrative subjects.