1997

Untitled

Japanese, born 1959

The title of this portfolio alludes to the artist’s creative process: Yanagi followed the path of an ant with an etching needle, incising its meandering trail in the varnished surface of five copper plates, which were then prepared for printing. The delicate tracery of the ant’s trail becomes denser at the edges, where the ant tried to escape its confinement. Yanagi has frequently employed the ant as an instrument of ever-changing symbolic potential, using its behavior to suggest a wide range of ideas, from military aggression to repressive subjugation.