JAZMINA CININAS

This frottage from 2024 is a continuation of the series of snake frottages that I have been creating since the COVID lockdowns. It has been designed so that there is the potential to link it up to pre-existing (and future) snake frottages to create one continuous serpent.

​The blue and black stripes are inspired by the sea krait, a venomous, semi-aquatic snake that can be found along the eastern coast of Australia. I am fascinated by the sea krait's liminal status as a creature that exists both on land and in water, possessing a paddle-like tail for swimming but needing to come ashore for its digestive and reproductive functions. Unlike fully aquatic sea snakes, alongside whom they co-evolved, sea kraits retain physiological vestiges of their land-based ancestors.  

I have been looking more into the mythology around snakes, in particular, the Lithuanian legend of Eglė the Serpent Queen. The sea krait seems a particularly apt motif for exploring the legend of a land-born woman who comes to live happily beneath the ocean with her snake groom, yet never quite loses the pull of her terrestrial birthplace. Eglė, in turn, offers a fitting motif for autoethnographic explorations of the diaspora experience.

In 2023 & 2024, I travelled to Japan for the first times, co-leading a study tour for RMIT School of Art university students. A mokuhanga (woodblock) workshop formed part of the study tour activities, and I thought I'd have a go too. I created a four-block image of my dog, Snukis. My husband had been sending me daily photos of him, so it was as though he was travelling with me. He is dressed in a red kerchief and carrying a key, inspired by the statues of sacred foxes, or inari, I had seen guarding the local Shinto temples. The key is to the back door of my home.

I thought I might be able to edition the woodblocks for the 3rd year exchange portfolio but, away from the mokuhanga sensei, I discovered just how fickle the medium is and was unable to achieve the desired level of consistency.  So I decided to try editioning the blocks as coloured pencil frottages instead. Just like any other print medium, I needed to proof the frottages to test colours, pencil brand and registration. The final edition was created using Prismacolor pencils, with a rubber stamp of a sakura (cherry) blossom - a souvenir from Kyoto - on the backs. These images include the test prints from the four blocks, extended with additional frottage from plastic waste.