Edition of 5 of 12

Pigment Ink on sustainable bamboo Awagami washi paper

118 x 84 cm (46.46 x 33.07 in)

Pigs Might Fly is an expression of an unlikely event, often throwing doubt on something. But it can also be seen as something hopeful, that something amazing could happen. In this artwork, black pigs fly left through a day lit sky, while white pigs fly right through a midnight sky. The two worlds exist simultaneously, but it is only possible to perceive one at a time. Sometimes we can only see one side of reality, but the other side can exist alongside it.

Made to celebrate the Chinese zodiac for 2019, the Year of the Pig, the graphic style is inspired by M.C. Escher’s woodcut prints of the late 1930s. The design is about positive and negative, figure and ground, and how each defines itself by the other. At each side, only one colour pig is visible and they fly free against the sky. Towards the centre, they begin to touch, and the spaces between them take on more and more details. In the middle section, both colour pigs exist as a mirror image of each other.