Gyotaku Print - Flounder 'Daylights'

Dr Eric Hochberg was the 1985 Thomas Ramsay Science & Humanities Fellow at Museum Victoria. He specialises in the traditional Japanese nature printing technique, Gyotaku. The objective of nature printing is to express the essence of nature through the medium of paper or cloth and ink. Fishermen would make gyotaku to preserve records of their catches. The oldest recorded gyotaku dates back to 1862 when Lord Sakai of the Yamagata prefecture, having harvested a particularly large catch in a single night, made prints of large red sea bream.

In Gyotaku, the simple elegance of common subjects is preferred. Whether weed, shell, or fish, each animal or plant has its own unique texture, shape and energy; by isolating the subject in the negative space on a sheet of paper this signature can be identified. The results are zen-like renderings that praise the diversity and beauty of nature.

Hochberg's works recreate schools of fishes, depth perspectives of plants and a sense of motion and life. There are two methods of Gyotaku; the indirect method involves placing the paper on top of a prepared specimen, and then applying the ink to the paper using a small cloth blotter. The final result is an accurately-sized, slightly abstract impression. The direct method, which Hochberg uses here, differs from the indirect in that the ink is applied to the specimen and then the paper is applied. The result is an exact replica of the specimen. This piece was printed in Stonington, Connecticut before Hochberg's Fellowship but presented to the Museum as a gift at the end of his residency. This work went on to win the Sanwa Bank's International Art Award in 1995.