mica printing

the block was firstly prepared with gum arabic, then dusted with mica using a fine brush. The paper was then printed, transferring a sandwich of glue and dust to the required area. Alternatively, the gum was printed directly onto the paper (sometimes through a stencil) and the mica powder was sieved onto the wet glue to be dusted off when the glue had dried.

http://mercury.lcs.mit.edu/~jnc/prints/glossary.html 

Kira-zuri (mica printing)

First, two identical blocks are carved (kiraban). One block is used to print the grounding color. Himenori is applied on the second block, which is then used to transfer the glue onto the paper. Mica powder is subsequently sprinkled onto the surface of the print. After drying, any excess powder is dusted off. There are two or three other methods of kira-zuri. In the artworks of Sharaku and Utamaro, kira-zuri is used to fill in the space between the drawings.

http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/gallery/yoshitoshi/techniques.html?sf_function=print


anisotropic

Yellow is the colour of the occupation.

(manuscript note at the top of the final proofs of Prisoner of Love)

Put all the images in language in a place of
safety and make use of them, for they are in the
desert, and it’s in the desert we must go
and look for them.

Jean Genet

The penal colony is fixed in the middle of a desert: a desert of stones rather than sand: an immense plain, burned by the sun. No plants grow. The camera must photograph these stones with precision, showing their glittering surfaces which contain mica. The penal colony needs to be shown as existing at the centre of an aridity that is perfect, mineral and crystallized… Time there is always the same. It never rains. Unless I decide to mention them, there are never storms. And no animals, except for flies: at certain moments, they form thick excessive black clouds.