Three Dimensions of Lines

A reduction woodblock print investigating linearity across spatial registers. The reduction method—carving and printing successive layers from a single block, destroying earlier states as work advances—suits systematic studies of geometric form, since each impression accumulates an irreversible record of its own making. The title points to Qian's interest in the intersection of mathematics (a focus carried over from his dual Carleton degree in Art History and Mathematics) and visual art, treating line as planar mark, as axis, and as a vehicle for implied volume. The print likely employs registered overprinting to construct grids or hatched fields in which line shifts function between edge, contour, and cast shadow. Within Qian's wider body of mokuhanga and reduction-cut work, the piece sits among his diagrammatic explorations, where the constraints of the printing process operate as subject matter alongside the imagery they generate.