Shiro TAKAHASHI
Examination Review
The message of a piece cannot fully persuade and move man's mind without aformative quality. I judged entries by valuing the maker's message, and then considering how rich the content of the message is materialized into a formative quality.
I noticed in the jurying-process that pieces even though dealing with topical social subjects of today failed to win an award because of formative problems. And I admit that I could not but rate a couple of pieces as a single piece according to the prescription of this competition, and that I could not read Arabic enough because of my insufficient knowledge of the language.
Various techniques of print expression have long been uniquely developed by artists, and today, they have extended to the digital realm. Then, it is regrettable that I could not find CG works among the awarded pieces. In this connection, I placed a high value on “MOMENT” by Sirje EELMA (Estonia) who displayed an aggressive attitude to develop a new technique for print. The motif of “EXCURSION” by Walter JULE (Canada) is invisible forces,such as gravity and tension. The atmospheric pressure or gravity, discovered by human beings in the modern age of science, have an absolute influence on man but are not sensed at all in daily life. I believe that they must be a subject matter for artists in this space age to recognize again.
The grand-prix piece “200 YEARS A.BORN H.CH. ANDERSEN I” by Katarina VAVROVA (Slovakia) has created a literary picture plane, enriched with Eastern sceneries and human figures. This print artist from Slovakia, located halfway between Turkey and Denmark, represented a Turkish illusion which the writer of children's stories tells to exhibit the work at this triennial exhibition held in Far Eastern Japan. I think that in this respect, the expression of East-West cultural exchanges deserves the best award.
“TAMAYURA 205” by SANPEI Mitsuo (Japan), a prominent piece peculiar to print art with an obviously practiced manner, won no more than the semi grand-prix. My voting may have influenced the result, because I did not have ufficient experience in judging prints.
I enjoyed judging very much where I could see numerous prints from all over the world. I appreciate it.
