POP CORN!

POP CORN!, printed in mokuhanga on Tosa paper in 2016, depicts popcorn as a still-life subject. Tosa is a durable, smooth Japanese handmade paper that accepts water-based pigments cleanly, allowing precise registration and luminous color in mokuhanga printing. Nam likely depicts the popcorn in a container — a bag or tub of the kind associated with movie theaters — rendered through carved woodblocks and multiple color passes. The choice of mokuhanga and traditional Japanese paper to depict a quintessentially American snack food reflects Nam's characteristic examination of everyday cultural objects. The bold punctuation of the title matches the graphic clarity of commercial popcorn packaging, which the woodblock printing both reproduces and transforms through its handmade process.