Lena Yokoyama is an Austrian/Japanese illustrator and printmaker based in London, UK, she graduated from BA Illustration at Camberwell College of Arts in 2020.
Yokoyama’s personal practice revolves around visual translation through print; endeavouring to translate words, narratives, and the physical world through her own forms of visual mark marking. The work builds on the idea that visual language can take language beyond what can be expressed through words alone. In working with concepts and traditions that sit between the East and the West, Yokoyama investigates themes of identity and cultural relativism.
Within the wide spectrum of Printmaking, Yokoyama mainly works with soft-ground steel etching in combination with canvas or linen. Outside of the technical facilities, when she works with Monoprinting, marks and illustrations are transferred onto paper and canvas through sheets of true grain and oil paint.
In Yokoyama’s latest work she been visualising traditional Japanese folklore stories through etching and monoprinting. These images have also been translated into three-dimensional ceramic objects. This project has been an endeavour to explore Japanese forms of aesthetic, storytelling and morale which has led to the illustrators better understanding of the concept of Wabisabi and their personal disposition to it.
Q&A with Lena Yokoyama
Can you describe your practice to us, and the process of working with print?
I mainly work with soft-ground steel etching in combination with canvas or linen. The way it works is, I apply a layer of soft-ground which is like waxy surface onto a steel plate. Then I put paper on top and make marks onto the paper which lifts off the wax from the plate in these areas. When I then put the plate into the acid bath, the areas that are wax free are being etched for a specific amount of time. After washing the plate it will be left with intaglio impressions which pick up the ink when inking the plate. I will then run it through the press using paper or canvas.
Printmaking is a very rewarding process. It’s impossible to fully control it, but that’s what I like about it. Every print is unique in its ink coverage and texture. The process, in a way, does what it wants sometimes and it reminds me that not everything in life can always controlled. That’s the beauty of it.
During lockdown what has your creative set up been? Have you made a ‘studio’ at home, and what haven’t you been able to do at home?
During Lockdown I was mainly working with Monoprinting. I was able to order a sheet of true grain onto which I rolled black ink and reverse printed on paper. I also found this perfectly square glass surface on the street which someone chucked out. That has been perfect for rolling out ink. Although monoprinting was a nice process to get into, I felt compromised without the access to facilities and printing presses.
Lena Yokoyama, first result in the workshop
Your practice deals with ceramics and printing, mediums which have long cultural histories in Japan, do you see a relationship with your work and these histories?
There is definitely a big connection. My current work is in many ways an exploration of my split ethnicity, trying to get to know the part of me that feels foreign and familiar at the same time. I’ve always felt an inexplicable pull toward Japanese craft and aesthetics. I’m trying to replicate Japanese ideas of beauty, which are rooted in a concept called Wabisabi, which sees beauty in the rustic, incomplete and imperfect. With my work I like to accentuate the beauty of raw material, minimal use of colour, off centre composition, and texture.
Can you speak about artists/creatives that have influenced you?
One artist that pops to mind is Yasuhiro Ishimoto. Although he isn’t a printmaker or even an illustrator, I feel like he has a similar eye for aesthetics as I do. He was a Japanese photographer who was raised in America and trained at the American Black mountain College in the 50’s. Just like me, he also had a mix of Eastern and Western culture within him, which made him aware of the intricacies between these two worlds including their differences, similarities, and cultural misunderstandings. His work brought out beauty in both Japanese and American scenes and gave highlights to things that were often overlooked by their natives, through his unique lens of always having an outside perspective. Ishimoto’s photographs of the Japanese temple Katsura in particular amaze me. He had a great sense for geometry and composition, which I find very inspiring.
Where do you see yourself and your creative practice in the future?
I would describe myself as an illustrator and printmaker. My practice is definitely split into two different areas. With illustration I’m trying to work in a more commercial way, possibly moving into editorial. With my printmaking I’m definitely more on the fine art side. I believe that the work is becoming more and more abstract. I’d like to explore the concept of Wabisabi and visual translation more. I’d like to make work inspired by Japanese Gardens and architecture, particularly the geometry found in Shoji screens and Tamami floors. I believe that by making art, through visual means of expression, I’ll be able to get to know myself, where I come from, and eventually develop an understanding of all of it.
Urashima Taro, Etching on Canvas, 2020
Description of Folklores
Urashima Taro (The Young Urashima)
Urashima Tarō is the protagonist of this Japanese folklore, a fisherman who is rewarded for rescuing a turtle, and carried on its back to the Dragon Palace beneath the sea. There he is entertained by the princess Otohime as a reward. He spends what he believes to be several days with the princess, but when he returns to his home village, he discovers he has been gone for at least 100 years. When he opens the forbidden jewelled box, given to him by Otohime on his departure, he turns into an old man.
Momotaro (Peachboy)
Long ago in Japan, a poor, elderly couple discover a large peach and, in it, the child they have always desired. They name him Momotaro -Peach Boy. As he grows up, the boy vows to protect his village from the oni monsters who ‘’steal our things and frighten our people.'' When he is 15, Momotaro sets out to conquer the evildoers; along the way he befriends a dog, a monkey and a hawk. Together they fight the oni monsters on the Island of Evil and defeat them so completely that they hand over their treasure and promise never to menace the villagers again.
Tsuru no Ongaeshi (Crane’s Return of a Favour)
It tells the story of an old man and how his kindness and generosity is rewarded. A man marries a woman who is in fact a crane he had rescued from hunters before disguised as a human. To make money the crane wife plucks her own feathers to weave silk brocade which the man sells, but she becomes increasingly ill as she does so; when the man discovers his wife's true identity and the nature of her illness, devastated by the truth he demands her to stop, she said she was doing it for love, for them. The man said that love exists without sacrifices but he was wrong, he who lives without sacrifices for someone else doesn't deserve to be with a crane.
In Japanese folklore, the crane is very important. It symbolises for example longevity, for it was thought that they lived over a thousand years, fidelity, for cranes are monogamous, and authority, so one can understand that it’s not just any bird that is being used in this tale.
Tengu no Kakuremino (The Tengu’s Magic Cloak)
A boy looks through an ordinary piece of bamboo and pretends he can see distant places. A tengu, overwhelmed by curiosity, offers to trade it for a magic straw cloak that renders the wearer invisible. Having duped the tengu, the boy continues his mischief while wearing the cloak.
Lena Yokoyama
Website: www.lena-yokoyama.art
Instagram: @lenabelle_
Email: yokoyama.lena@gmail.com
London, UK