C.U.M.F.

C.U.M.F. shares its 2022 cotton-paper and photocopy-transfer construction with Cross, indicating the two were pulled in close proximity during the same studio period. The acronym title is characteristic of Yokoo's tendency to title elliptically — names that point to a private referent without disclosing it, in keeping with a body of work concerned with traces of meaning rather than meaning rendered legible. The photocopy-transfer technique allows a photographic source to be re-handled through the lithographic process: image is laid down by toner, fixed onto the aluminium plate, and then printed in lithographic ink, which slightly degrades and re-textures the original. The cotton paper supports this mediated quality; it lacks the crisp absorbency of washi and instead holds the image with a matte, slightly diffused surface. Within the artist's chronology, the cotton-paper transfer prints mark a transitional phase between his graphic Australian-period lithographs and the later site-bound Japanese series, where the photographic source becomes increasingly anchored to specific places.