Mudra #1

Shiro Ikegawa

Mudra is a symbolic or ritual gesture in Buddhism and Hinduism, performed with the hands and fingers. Each gesture represents the function and nature of different deities.

Shiro Ikegawa often revisited the theme of religious and spiritual symbolism, finding patterns in ritual that lent themselves to visual manifestation. This collagraph is three dimensional, the textures and shapes rising from the paper’s surface in solid, even rows. Ikegawa breaks up the regularity in two elements: the dark window of space in which illuminated hands form the mudra; and the unfolding lotus blossom along the bottom edge, the petals cradling a vessel as if to receive a blessing. The whole of the composition is meditative, as if a visual representation of an even tempo.