Flying
1985
Kawachi Seiko is known for using the traditional woodblock print medium to convey the stress and anxiety of the modern urban condition. Flying chickens, often juxtaposed with cube-like skyscrapers, are a common motif in his work. The placement of the barnyard fowl in a stark cityscape creates an unsettling disquietude as we witness its frantic attempts at flight. A single chicken's movements through the four oversized prints, viewed from right to left, follows the classic East Asian rhetorical convention of ki-sho-ten-ketsu: introduction, development, turn, conclusion. The whirling, circular lines, much like chicken scratches, add a graphic nervous energy to this powerful quartet of prints.
Woodblock print; ink on paper
65 5/8 x 36 in. (166.6 x 91.4 cm)
Gift of Robert, Takako and Victoria Morehouse, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum
2007.77.1
Provenance: Purchased by the donor at Gallery Baku, Tokyo from artist's solo exhibition, 1980s
Photo: Susan Cole
