Cosmos - Scene A-18

Scene A-18 is the eighteenth plate in Tachibana's 2023 Cosmos sequence, an etching that treats the cosmos flower and its branching foliage as the basis for a sustained study in line and tone. The image likely centers a single bloom or small cluster against an open ground, with the radial petal arrangement set against the looser, fern-like geometry of the leaves. Tachibana's technique combines hard-ground etching for the linear drawing with aquatint for the soft mid-tones, an approach that gives the plate the simultaneous specificity and atmospheric quietness that her work is known for. Within her broader output, the Cosmos prints sit alongside the long-running Michi (Path / Life) series as part of a contemplative serial practice in which botanical structure is treated less as ornament than as an organizing principle. The print extends the conversation between kacho-e subject matter and contemporary intaglio technique that has organized her work since the late 1990s.