Kiss for Me - Cross for You 2000

Bob Law made this print, titled “Kiss for Me - Cross for You”, in 2000, and what strikes me is how such a simple composition of etched lines can be so evocative. It's like Law is stripping back the act of artmaking to its barest essentials. The texture of the piece is really interesting - you can see the grain of the paper coming through, giving it a kind of raw, unfiltered feel. The white lines against the dark background create this stark contrast, and the way they're not perfectly straight or uniform adds to the sense of it being handmade, human. I keep coming back to that title, “Kiss for Me - Cross for You." It's such a strange pairing of ideas. Is it about love, sacrifice, or some weird combination of the two? And how does that relate to the simple geometry of the shapes? It reminds me a bit of Agnes Martin, in the sense of using simple forms to create something deeply meditative and open-ended. It’s a good reminder that art isn't always about answers, sometimes it's about embracing the questions.