Those Who Leave and Those Who See Off

The medium — color etching and aquatint — distinguishes this plate from the largely tonal black-and-white work that constitutes much of Asahi's output. Color in intaglio is achieved either by inking a single plate à la poupée, dabbing distinct hues into separate areas, or by registering multiple plates in sequence; either approach demands that each impression be drawn through the press with the colors aligned. The title divides its subjects into two parties: those departing and those remaining behind. Such partings recur in her invented mythology — boats setting out, music spirits passing through, travel companions separating. The composition likely arranges figures across a shore or threshold, with body language and gaze rather than narrative incident establishing which group is which. Color in this context tends to be subdued, registered as a tonal warming or cooling rather than as bright local hue. The plate belongs to a smaller subset of her catalogue in which colored ink is admitted into the otherwise aquatint-driven monochrome world she has built across more than two decades.