Postcards Henri Banks shop

The 3 cards below are from Henri Banks

The 8 cards below are from Maki Shimizu

"Portraits of our Friends"
Concept:

“Yuki” is the studio name made of:
YUko chikazawa and maKI shimizu.
They met in the print-lab of the ‘Tsukuba’ University and began collaboration in 2001.

All the portraits were designed by Maki in pencil, her favourite instrument. Maki was inspired by 1000 snap-shots left on Yuko’s desk in their studio and took part as an art director in making the visual concept of this series. After the designs were made, Yuko carved them in wood-blocks.

We tried to apply traditional technique but still keep their modern expression. That’s how the project named “UKIYOE” took off.

UKIYOE (‘pictures of floating world’) suggests the traditional Japanese woodcut-printing technique. What we tried to achieve was to produce modern-looking images in the particular style.
This involved joint work, with each of the artist applying their skills and talent to the maximum, aiming at high quality of the final pictures, with the standard of classic master-pieces in our minds.
In this process, trust in each other was important.

Overall, this collection (about 40 pieces) is mostly of our friends. By choosing ‘ordinary faces’ of our friends as subjects we hoped to stay in close relation to the original meaning of the ‘ukiyo-e’.

In fortunately we have fun and find presure, so that continue our effort since 6 years and Yuki has got more than 5 exbitions in Germany in the last cupple years. Each time we’ve got hot feedbacks, and we are preparing for an exhibition in Munich (2007 / Autum) to make new portraits with new friends and web site now.







Design + Koncept:
Maki Shimizu
Woodblock Carving + Printing:
Yuko Chikazawa