With the Okashi

作品賞析

Lee Yen-Jen, an artist who is good at creating intaglio prints, used the Chine-collé method in With the Ôkashi, so that the image presents the effect of opening a window through a light-colored background. It looks like a fragment of memory, and through this irregularly shaped composition the viewer sees part of an oak tree and a boy holding onto a branch. When Lee Yen-Jen was an artist-in-residence in Akiruno, Japan, she learned from the people there that the area had a history of producing stone materials for printmaking in the past, so she went on a trip to find the media. During this trip, she saw a particularly majestic and beautiful Japanese evergreen oak tree, and then created this work, which to her became a symbol of her memories of her residency period. The boy in the tree represents the special local Akiruno Shrine festival, during which a boy wears a fox mask to perform. Lee Yen-Jen has him transform into the image of a mountain god, living among the trees like an elf.