Wave Painting 2 (波絵2)

Wave Painting 2 (波絵2) continues Ono Kouseki's investigation of the wave as a subject suited to his stacked-ink silkscreen process. As in the rest of the Nami-e group, a single screen incised with minute diamond-shaped marks is registered over the sheet sixty to one hundred times, each impression carrying a different ink, so that the printed wave acquires real, measurable depth — five to six millimetres of layered pigment built up across the image field. The second sheet generally pushes the colour selection further from the opening print, with cooler troughs and warmer crests forced to coexist within the same diamond grid. The dotted matrix produces a moiré-like vibration when the eye moves across the sheet, which Ono uses as a visual analogue for the unstable surface of water. The work belongs to a contemporary Japanese print tradition that has retained the historical commitment to repeat impression and chromatic layering associated with nishiki-e while transposing those values onto industrial silkscreen materials.