Haku Maki 巻白

This work by Haku Maki dissolves the boundary between text and image. This character, meaning wind, is not easy to recognize because of its distortion in form and ambiguity in materiality. The use of black and white suggests calligraphy, while the strokes of the character reflect the qualities of both brushwork and woodblock printing. The texture of the deeply embossed paper draws the viewer in, enhancing the illegibility of the character by abstracting it further.