In Japan there is an idiom – Gyaku mo mata, shin nari – which translates roughly as ‘vice versa’, or ‘the converse is true’.
It’s a maxim which has inspired and informed the artist Nana Shiomi whose work is currently on display at Edinburgh Printmakers.
Shiomi’s journey away from her native Japan was itself a process of self-examination, an attempt at self-completion by adopting another geographical and philosophical point of view:
Through my work, I want to show how any integrally formed truth has both a front and rear. I am very proud to say that the medium of printmaking is the perfect vehicle for communicating this truth.
The dualisms inherent in printmaking’s opposing configurations of print and plate hold clues for Shiomi about the way the world works, its underlying patterns, secret mechanisms.
At the end of the printing process, when I peel the paper from my last block, I feel a thrill. I become the first viewer of my work. I designed the work, but on first viewing, there is always something surprising. As a medium, printmaking never permits precise results. I cut the blocks and put the colours on the plates, but I cannot insert myself behind the plate and the paper. This indirect automation is one of the beauties of printmaking.
This reviewer loved the 24 images displayed – their apparent serenity, their subtle ironies and asymmetries, the quietly spoken depth of their 2-D contemplations. Pictured above is the breathtaking ‘Mirror Pond – Kinkaku’, and below – a rolling presence on this blustery autumn day – ‘Here Comes the Wind God’.
Nana Shiomi’s Reverse: Universe continues at Edinburgh Printmakers (23 Union Street) until 1 November. Admission is free.
