All We Have Is Now

The phrase belongs to a strain of titles in Akino's 2022 work that lean on aphorism — short, almost poetic statements about impermanence and presence. Etching and aquatint are used without applied leaf in this print, leaving the image to carry on the strength of bitten line and tonal wash alone. The aquatint passages allow Akino the soft graduated tonalities that her practice tends toward — closer in feel to ink wash than to the harder edges typical of pure line etching. Working at Graphic Studio Dublin, Ireland's longest-established open-access print workshop, Akino has maintained a deliberately quiet visual vocabulary across her output: landscape, suggestion, weather, time. The title's resonance with mono no aware — the Japanese sensitivity to the passing of things — sits naturally alongside the Irish landscape subjects that recur elsewhere in her 2022 series.