Yuji Isa

Yuji is a graphic designer, illustrator and Professor of Art at Tokai University. The Hidden Leaves 木葉隠れて and Buds Fresh in the Field, Colouring 野の浅芽色づき were offered as gifts to Monash by Yuji’s sister Yoko Pinkerton, who founded the interpreting and translation program in Japanese Studies at the University. Building upon traditional Japanese printmaking methods where ink is screened onto paper and then mica pigment lightly dusted onto the wet surface, the technique lends the prints a metallic sheen. Reflecting ambient light and shapes, the prints’ surfaces capture their surroundings, as alluded to in their titles. Differing from his figurative prints, these are geometric, abstract and western interpretations of Japanese techniques. Considering their reflective visual quality, how does Yuji’s printing technique mirror replicative computational processing? Do their layers reveal different cultural modes of machine-seeing?