New Illusion (11/38)

New Illusion, printed in 1985 in an edition of 38, belongs to a period when Shinoda was actively producing both woodblock prints and lithographs in significant quantities. The title pairs novelty with deception, suggesting that what appears on the paper is both fresh and unreliable as representation. At seventy-two, Shinoda was interrogating the relationship between mark and meaning with sharpened intent. The woodblock medium grounds the illusion in physical reality, each form the product of carved wood, applied ink, and pressed paper, even as the resulting image refuses to settle into a fixed reading.