Star Fish Road

Star Fish Road combines two of Asahi's recurring atmospheric motifs — stars and fish — into a route or passage suggested by the third element of the title. Worked as a color etching with aquatint, the plate would use localized color to differentiate the fish, the stars, or the road itself from the surrounding field, while sustained aquatint provides the tonal expanse of night sky and water. The conceit of fish forming or lining a road is consistent with Asahi's invented mythology, in which she has stated that the strange animals, beings, and plants of her prints exist only in fantasy; here the fish appear to function as both subject and means of travel. Across her catalogue, water imagery and travel imagery converge in several plates, including the women who weave the surface of the sea and the various masters who move between locations with their attendant creatures. The print belongs to her ongoing intaglio practice, issued as a small signed and numbered edition consistent with the format her dealers in Europe and the United States have handled since the 1990s.