Gnaw (がぶり)

Gaburi is an onomatopoeic term for biting or chomping, an action with both human and animal registers — appropriate for an artist whose family operated a veterinary clinic in Takasaki. The 2018 etching likely depicts a bite as somatic event: teeth meeting flesh, mouth on object, an act that crosses bodies. The mark of the bite becomes analogous to the mark of the etched line, which is itself a controlled act of bitten copper — acid biting metal as teeth bite skin. Murakami often pairs printmaking's chemical violence with bodily metaphors of injury and healing. The print likely employs lift-ground or aquatint to render fleshy passages alongside the precise line work characteristic of her draftsmanship. As with other prints in her 2018 output, the format is small and the address intimate, the figure caught mid-action with anatomical attention to mouth, jaw, and contact point.