Fragments (19)

Fragments (19), a 2025 mixed-media print on plywood, returns the series to the flat support after the dimensional Fragments (17) and (18). Reading the sequence in order, the works alternate between print-on-panel and carved-object iterations, suggesting that Desforges is using the numbering to track a continued negotiation between image and matrix rather than a linear progression. The plywood substrate — exposed grain, visible plies, often with sanded or partially printed-over passages — functions as both ground and incident, in a way the washi of traditional Japanese woodblock does not. Mixed-media elements typically include water-based woodblock printing in the mokuhanga tradition, hand-applied colour, and possible photo-derived or lithographic transfers drawn from her wider technical repertoire. The work is consistent with the practice Desforges has built since her 2018 Japan residency: a hybrid printmaking informed by mokuhanga discipline but unwilling to be confined to its conventions, rooted in her teaching and technical role at the West Yorkshire Print Workshop.