beating of copper - 185

This drypoint, numbered sequentially one position after entry 184 and produced in the same year, suggests that Ikeda worked the two plates in close proximity, likely treating them as paired investigations within the same working period. In drypoint, successive plates worked in sequence often share tonal logic and compositional density, as the artist's sensitivity to mark pressure and spacing carries directly from one plate to the next. "Beating of Copper - 185" participates in the series' broader formal inquiry: the title's reference to percussive metalwork grounds the visual field in the labor of fabrication, positioning the printed image as index of physical process rather than pictorial illusion. Printed on dampened [washi](/glossary/washi) with oil-based intaglio ink wiped to retain surface tone, the work presents its surface as a tightly organized field of directional marks whose collective weight generates the composition's spatial and tonal structure. By 2025, the series had reached a scale that functions as a sustained durational performance in copper and ink.