Space&Space Nature 99F

Nature 99F belongs to the 1999 sequence of Endo's Space&Space prints, sharing with Nature 99H, 99D and 99E a common formal scheme: a photographic image drawn from the natural world — typically trees, grass, or water — set against a flat, geometrically defined area of solid colour or printed pattern. The 99-coded works were produced as Endo continued to refine the hybrid technique he had developed earlier in his career, combining photographic plate-making with traditional Japanese woodblock printing on [washi](/glossary/washi). The photographic passages are rendered with the granularity of offset reproduction, while the abstract fields are laid down through woodblock or screen with even, opaque coverage. The interface between the two halves is the conceptual hinge of the print. Endo's series builds on the [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) tradition of attending to specific natural fragments, but reframes that tradition through the language of late-twentieth-century graphic design — a synthesis informed by his early training at Musashino Art College and the Kuwasawa Design School.