Horseshoe Crabs and Red Knot Endangered horseshoe crabs provide eggs for endangered shorebirds. Evolutionary storylines reaching back hundreds of millions of years are now in danger of ending with habitat destruction and ocean harvesting. The red knot is a medium sized migratory shore bird, it flies vast distances from breeding grounds in the north to winter feeding grounds in the south. The feeding areas are restricted to highly productive wetlands and sand flats on intertidal zones, places that are increasingly taken into human use, for agriculture and coastal property development. In the middle of the major migratory path from the Arctic tundra to the tip of South America the red knots make a vital stopover to feed on eggs of the horseshoe crabs. The extinction of horseshoe crabs through over-harvesting would likely cut off the migration path of the red knots. Other migration paths exist but all are under similar pressures.
20 x 20 cm, 1 Shina block, Water-washable oils (COBRA) on Nishinouchi washi with sumi sizing, edition 24 for Baren Exchange. Part of the Double Dagger series where two printmakers illustrate environmental themes
Tom Kristensen 2024 ǂ
Red knot and Horseshoe crabs lino print
Hand carved and printed by Tom Kristensen in the style of Ono Tadashige onto black hand made Japanese washi paper.
20 x 20cm
Tadashige Ono was born in 1909 near the end of the Meiji era; four decades of industrialisation and military expansion under the imperial eye of the emperor. Japanese military victory over China on the Korean Peninsula led to the Chinese revolution of 1911, overturning 2000 years of monarchy with the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Other revolutions in Russia and Germany saw the rise of more REDS.
Communist posters and pamphlets were illustrated with proletarian art, seemingly carved from wood with a pen knife. Woodblock art, historically dismissed as plebeian, was now authentically primitive. The young Ono entering art school was energetically criticising industrial development and capitalism, while leading fellow artists to mount group exhibitions and publish magazines. His early black and white work was crowded with figures; at work, on strike, partying. He produced a 50-page graphic novel illustrating “the death of three generations”, a pregnant mother is seen pushing a coal cart, then dying while giving birth in the mine. As his work became more colourful Ono depicted landscapes and village life; cats and birds predominate as silent witnesses while the people go about their daily lives. Scenic views of Japan and abroad combine with comments on pollution, wreckage and warfare. Ono was a respected scholar of prints and a bold innovator. He developed a technique enabling multicoloured prints to be made from a single block.
Champion of the Japanese print tradition, which had always produced affordable art for the masses, he worked in universities teaching the history of prints and passing on printmaking skills. Always producing prints at incredible speed, Qno encouraged others to join his print revolution. He mentored many important artists, including Kiyoshi Saito. Although a museum opened after his death in 1990, that museum has now sadly been deaccessioned, perhaps an indication of a lack of respect for a RED rabble rouser.
These 36 views are presented in the Sosaku Hanga tradition: self-carved and hand printed. This print was made from a Linoleum floor tile, Japanese gampi washi, and Royal Talens water-washable oils, and backed with Thai kozo chiri. The seal indicates the Double Dagger project; prints from collaborating artists on environmental themes: Australia is an island continent producing rivers of RED iron ore and black coal.
This print in answer to Ono’s Ume (fT:) – Sea 1959
Tom Kristensen
2024
Red Green Island by Tom Kristensen
Made in the style of Ono Tadashige on a single lino block.
25.5 x 20cm
Number 29 in Tom’s Green Island series, this print is about how increasing global temperature is changing to once very stable climates and locations.
A$150.00
Print by Tom KristensenBackingVerso of Red Green Island
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