Dream- oban

The oban-format woodblock print takes its title from the elusive subject of dreaming, a state of consciousness where logic dissolves and imagery floats free of narrative constraint. Saito's rendering translates the dream state into visual terms through forms that may hover between recognition and abstraction, figures or objects that resist fixed identification. The oban format, approximately 25 by 38 centimeters, provides a standard vertical canvas that has served Japanese printmakers for centuries, and Saito's use of it connects this psychologically modern subject to a deep tradition of format and scale. The woodblock technique's layered printing process, building an image through successive overlapping impressions, mirrors the way dream content accumulates from fragments.