Jacob Hashimoto | The Necessary Invention of the Mind

In the printmaking studio Hashimoto has begun to question and play with these limitations. For previous collaborations with Durham Press-most recently, Cloud Reservoirs in Finite Glitch Space, a series of large-scale monoprints from 2018-he used his kite forms to depict "magic space," or to produce compositions that "couldn't happen in real space." The kites are untethered and appear to levitate, ascend, or tumble playfully across the white-paper background.

Hashimoto's freehand approach continued throughout the production process. He chose the colors in a similarly instinctual manner and then scribbled marks across each work. These lines recall the strings that brace and support the artist's kite installations, but instead of being taut and vertical, here they move playfully across the page, twisting around, over, and under the other shapes. Through these gestures, Hashimoto suggests that it is not the kites that are suspended, but rather the laws of physics themselves.

The prints in The Necessary Invention of the Mind take these experiments a step further, presenting twelve compositions with amorphous, abstract shapes that appear to give off their own gravitational fields. The hexagonal kites respond to the contours of these enigmatic masses of color, surrounding them in various formations-some of which are concentrated and dense; others, relatively scattered and sparse. Hashimoto created these blocks using woodworking tools at Durham Press. Cut intuitively on a band saw, they feature uneven edges that convey a sense of the artist's hand and contrast with the precision of the kites, which were made with a computer numerical control (CNC) router.