日本

Japanese art has the notion of "ma" — the interval, the pause, the empty place that means no less than the filled one. Hokusai painted Fuji thirty-six times, and in the best prints the mountain is almost absent — there is the air around it. The crane is a bird that lives a thousand years; calligraphy is a single gesture that cannot be repeated.

The series works on emptiness. Fuji in ink — the mountain in one movement, and much field around it. Metal cranes on black — a flock built in relief where every bird shines in its own way. Calligraphy on gold — a gesture laid over the sheet. One mountain, one flock, one line, and the wall becomes part of the silence.

The matter is laid thin: minimal relief, ink on a light ground, leaf gold only in points where shine is needed; the cranes in metallised relief; epoxy resin, which gives the black the depth of lacquer. The edition is numbered.

A series for a bedroom, a study, a tea room, for minimalist interiors where one thing on the wall is already a lot. Japan is the studio's quietest work.