Concept (Can't See)

Dating to 2014, "Concept (Can't See)" pairs linocut with monoprint, a technical combination Wuon-Gean Ho returns to throughout her practice. The linocut block delivers a stable, reproducible drawing—likely a figure or face given the parenthetical "Can't See"—while the monoprint pass introduces a unique veil, smear, or atmospheric layer that physically obstructs reading of the image. The bracketed title structure ("Concept" qualified by "Can't See") suggests Ho is working through a sequence in which the same key idea is reframed under different conditions of vision or comprehension. Her wider body of work returns frequently to themes of attention, blockage, and partial perception, often filtered through autobiographical narrative or grief. Technically, combining relief and monoprint in one impression means each pull carries both an editioned and a unique component, and registration between the carved block and the hand-inked plate is deliberately loose, producing the sensation that the image is shifting or evading the viewer. The print belongs to Ho's mid-career deepening of mixed-process work, after her mokuhanga training in Kyoto and during her London studio practice.