Game - Work No. 18

Game — Work No. 18 belongs to a numbered series in which Hamanishi arranges objects across the picture plane with the deliberation of a board-game layout, the title implying both play and rule-bound order. Executed in mezzotint, the print deploys the medium's signature velvety black ground, established by rocking the plate uniformly before selective burnishing isolates each form against the dark field. Hamanishi's series-based working method — Game, Division, Vision, Spring of Beauty — accumulates variations on a compositional premise across decades, individual numbers extending and refining the underlying scheme rather than restating it. His subjects are typically natural specimens (leaves, pods, feathers, shells) treated with botanical precision; the Game series in particular tends to organize such elements into grid-like or scattered arrangements that reward close inspection. The numbering signals position within the sequence rather than chronology of creation, allowing the series to remain open as the artist returns to it over years.