The Osaka-Zu Byōbu screen, depicting Osaka during the Toyotomi period, perhaps presents an idealized, almost dreamlike version of the city: what people once imagined it could or should be. It belongs to a past that feels difficult to grasp; where time distorts identity, and the more we look, the harder it becomes to fully comprehend the individuals depicted within the Byōbu.
The golden clouds (金雲・kin’un) in the Osaka-Zu Byōbu, which suggest the movement of time and give the screen a floating atmosphere, inspired me in creating an image that feels present yet vague, as if from a faded memory or a dream. Through the technique of Mokuhanga reduction printing, I explore the passage of time, the creation of a dreamlike atmosphere and depictions of the human within it. The technical process itself embodies this concept, as each layer carved away represents change and disappearance, leaving behind only traces of the previous one.

Benjamin Hrbenić (2000) – Tokyo University of the Arts
Printmaker from Bosnia and Herzegovina currently a Research Student at Tokyo University of the Arts.
Received a BFA in Printmaking from The Academy of Fine Art at University of Sarajevo.
Through the process of printmaking, Hrbenic explores themes of melancholy and existentialisms and atmospheres often found in surrealistic and metaphysical works through the motif of the human body and its interaction with the space around it.

 

Keyword: Melancholy, Dreamlike, Human body, Surrealism