Varanasi I

The title references the city on the Ganges in northern India, suggesting a place-anchored impression rendered through Qian's contemporary woodblock idiom rather than within the conventions of traditional Japanese landscape printing. Qian's hand-pulled practice, originating in Yunnan and developed through mokuhanga study at the Rhode Island School of Design, allows the absorbent fibers of washi paper to register atmospheric particulars—humidity, drift, ambient light. As 'I' in what appears to be a continuing series, the print likely initiates a layered investigation rather than offering a single descriptive view. The composition may stratify ghats, river surface, and architectural silhouettes through superimposed registers and bokashi-style gradations, deferring the singular vista in favor of accumulated atmospheric material. The piece extends Qian's intermittent engagement with travel-derived subject matter alongside his more system-driven abstract work.