Tatsuo Miyajima Counter Skin in Recklinghausen 9, 2008 Lambda Print, Signed Edition of 20
Tatsuo Miyajima Counter Skin in Recklinghausen 9, 2008 Lambda Print, Signed Edition of 20
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A guide for this piece: about $205, based on the 10% US charge on the declared value of goods made in Japan.
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- QuietResplendent Balanced 4 of 10 ·
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Condition report
Mint9.5 / 10
- Giftable
- Mint
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- Honest Wear
- As Found
Nine, Before the Count Begins Again
The last digit before Miyajima's counters restart is painted onto a living body in a quiet park. It reads as both an ending and a promise of return.
Best for: Collectors of Tatsuo Miyajima and of conceptual photography
Condition notes
Described as unused and in as-new condition, never framed, kept flat since purchase.
Assessed from photographs and descriptionReport dated 14 November 2026
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A deep red digit 9 is painted across a bare torso standing in a green park: Counter Skin in Recklinghausen 9, Tatsuo Miyajima's 2008 lambda print, from an edition of 20.
The Piece
Since the late 1980s Tatsuo Miyajima has built his art from counting: LED digits that run from 1 to 9 and never show zero, standing for life, change and continuity. In the Counter Skin project he takes the digit off the gallery wall and paints it straight onto the human body, so the number becomes a mark of one living person in one place. The photographs were made in Recklinghausen, a town in Germany's Ruhr, once the heart of its coal country.
Nine is the last number before Miyajima's counters begin again, so it carries a sense of an ending and a return. The thick red segments wrap the body from chest to waist, and the soft green of the lawn and trees behind turns the image calm rather than confrontational. The figure is shown unclothed above the waist, as is usual in this series.
The sheet is a lambda print, offered as signed and numbered, as the description states; the photographs show the signature at the lower right and the number at the lower left, partly masked. The edition is given as 20.
Details
- Artist: Tatsuo Miyajima
- Title: Counter Skin in Recklinghausen 9
- Year: 2008
- Medium: Lambda print (chromogenic photograph)
- Edition: 20, as described
- Signature: Offered as signed and numbered
- Sheet: 45 x 60 cm (17.7 x 23.6 in)
- Frame: Unframed sheet
- Condition: Unused, as new
Condition
- Described as unused and in as-new condition, never framed.
- Kept flat as a sheet since purchase.
Condition grade S (unused, as new) on the Japanese scale; see Japanese condition ranks, explained.
Authenticity & Care
Signature and edition are given as the description states them. Frame behind UV-filtering glazing with acid-free mounts, and hang away from sun and damp.
Delivery from Japan
The sheet travels flat, never rolled, between rigid boards in a box packed by hand in Japan, insured and tracked. The Desk weighs EMS, FedEx and air freight in turn, so the shipping charge is quoted and agreed with you before purchase.
Duties and taxes are payable on arrival. Every sale is final; please ask anything you wish to know before you buy, and see our published policy.
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Collectors also search: Tatsuo Miyajima Counter Skin print · Miyajima Recklinghausen 9 · Tatsuo Miyajima signed photograph

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