Garlic

A copperplate study of a single garlic bulb (にんにく), rendered through Takeda's combined etching and aquatint approach. The hard-ground etched line traces the papery layers of the bulb's outer membrane, picking out the dry, fibrous wrappings that catch light at their edges, while aquatint passes establish the grayscale gradations within the recessed cloves and beneath the form. Chine-collé adheres a thin secondary sheet — typically a faintly toned or shimmering paper — to the printing surface, giving the image its characteristic luminous undertone. The subject sits squarely within Takeda's long preoccupation with small, ordinary objects from kitchen and garden: alliums, vines, single fruits and seedheads. Like A Shallot (2008), Garlic exemplifies her tendency to isolate a humble form against an expansive tonal field, treating the vegetable with the descriptive precision of a botanical study. Editions of these prints are typically thirty impressions, each individually inked and printed by the artist.