933 1986

Editor: Okay, next up is "933," a print made in 1986 by Funasaka Yoshisuke. It's this super cool teal and pastel-ish colored print with wavy vertical bars against a grid. I get a kind of playful, almost musical vibe from it. It looks like it's almost humming or vibrating! What catches your eye about it? Curator: "Humming," you say? I love that! It *does* vibrate with a subtle energy. It’s like a visual poem composed of rhythm and restraint. I wonder, does the gridded teal field feel like a sort of landscape to you? Somewhere the colors are hanging out together? Or is it something else? Editor: Yeah, kind of a strange landscape, maybe, but definitely a place where those little lines are… well, standing in a row. There’s something a little unsettling about them. But what is this, even? Is there symbolism or, you know, like…a story behind the colors and shapes? Or even behind the name? '933?' It's odd, no? Curator: It certainly is…odd. And you are quite right! The number feels arbitrary, yet it fixes it, like a scientist’s specimen label, or a manufacturer’s model number. Funasaka was definitely working within a Pop Art sensibility, playing with industrial aesthetics but softening it with human imperfections – that is, all of those lines are imperfect repetitions. Do you see any tension in it, in its precision versus randomness, maybe? Editor: Absolutely! The wavy lines – the little variations, are really sweet, so… human. It kind of transforms the grid – it makes it playful, less sterile and… colder. I appreciate now the imperfections in the line and the handmade aspect to it. It becomes softer and it gives life to this odd background. Curator: Exactly! And that teal. Think of it like… the backdrop for a quirky, colorful concert! Editor: Ha! You’re totally right! Okay, I think I see this piece with completely new eyes now!