Conventional Formality

"Conventional Formality" likely operates as a meditation on the structured discipline of mokuhanga itself, where the tradition imposes a sequence — carving, registration via kento marks, brushing of water-based pigment with rice-paste nori, and hand-burnishing with a baren onto dampened washi. The title's pairing of "conventional" with "formality" reads as conceptual rather than descriptive, suggesting an abstract or geometric image whose composition foregrounds rules of arrangement: balance, repetition, geometric order. Within Qian's practice, mokuhanga occupies a contemplative register distinct from his reduction-cut work; the medium's slow pace and reliance on water-based color encourages soft tonal transitions and bokashi gradations rather than the dense saturation possible with oil-based inks. This print sits among a body of work in which Qian, trained at RISD and steeped in printmaking tradition since his early years in Yunnan, examines formal vocabulary as both subject and method.