Urban Holiday

Printed in 2016, this work depicts figures within an urban setting during a holiday — a subject that contrasts the structured environment of the city with the relaxed, loosened quality of leisure time. Moilanen's figures are likely rendered with simplified contour against architectural or public-space backgrounds, a compositional approach with roots in both twentieth-century European printmaking and the bijin-ga tradition of figure-in-setting compositions. The mokuhanga technique's layered color fields lend themselves to urban scenes where flat areas of tone — pavement, facades, sky — frame more detailed figural passages. The print reflects Moilanen's interest in the intersection of contemporary European daily life and the formal possibilities of the Japanese water-based medium.