‘I wandered from town to town, country to country and sometimes my journey was hard, but it is at just such times that the reward comes. When a man loses his way, he often finds himself – or some unlooked-for treasure’
Mitsumasa Anno’s picture book explores a journey through the English countryside across double page spreads of fields and towns, full of intricate details and hidden surprises.
Although, like Chisato Tamabayashi’s Airborne, we can’t know for sure that the pages depict the Kentish countryside, we see indications such as oast houses, traditional buildings used to dry hops that are thought to have originated in Kent, and medieval market towns that look remarkably similar to Canterbury!
A tiny red balloon, escaping a child’s hand and floating across the pages, links the work to others such as Tamabayashi’s in our Kentpan section, but it is by no means the only easter egg that catches the viewer’s eye. Across the pages artworks by the likes of Van Gogh and Seurat are recreated, and fairytale scenes are hidden in woodland clearings.
We see the issues of translation come through again here: although in most parts, we see clear signs that the landscapes and villages represented are English, there are parts mixed in which seem more like they come from mainland Europe, as personal experience and culture is added to the mix. In this way, we can link the work to Utagawa Toyoharu’s French Churches of Holland, where parts of Europe are jumbled and combined with elements of Japanese culture – translation is not always a perfect artform, but can sometimes add a whole new dimension to the mix.
Read more about My Journey here
Read more about Mitsumasa here