Round Trip

Round Trip, a 1983 mezzotint, suggests through its title a journey of departure and return, though the image translates this concept into abstract visual terms rather than literal narrative. The composition likely involves forms that trace a circular or reciprocal path through the pictorial space, beginning and ending at related points. Hamanishi's approach to abstraction in the early 1980s maintained a connection to physical phenomena, with even his most geometric works retaining the light-described solidity of objects in real space. The mezzotint technique reinforces this materiality: the burnished areas of the plate produce tones that behave like light falling on actual surfaces, giving abstract forms a convincing physical presence. The print dates from a period when Hamanishi was transitioning from his early object studies toward more conceptually driven compositions.