Beginning in the early 1960s, Yukihisa Isobe developed his Wappen Series using a composite technique in which badge-shaped pieces of cardboard were affixed to a wooden support, coated with colored marble dust, and painted with oil while the surface remained partially dry. The relief-like three-dimensionality and the repetitive arrangement of the badge forms create both visual and tactile depth.In large-scale works such as Work ’60-18 (1960), the badge shape appears as an abstract form composed of rectangles and semicircles. Repeated in a more compact format, however, it comes to resemble the shield-shaped emblems found on military uniforms, suggesting a symbol that stands for something beyond itself. Yet the motifs depicted on these badges do not convey any specific meaning. Instead, they remain ambiguous forms that hover between sign and design. Confronted with shapes that seem meaningful yet resist fixed interpretation, viewers are prompted to assign meanings of their own and to search for what might be read within them.The 1960s, when this work was produced, was a period in which Pop Art emerged internationally and transformed people, commodities, and other real-world subjects into recognizable icons and signs. In contrast, the badge forms in this work, while appearing similar at first glance, differ subtly in shape, coloration, and arrangement. Refusing to function as clear symbols, they reveal our own tendency to assign meaning to things and to perceive them as signs.Isobe explored this series through a wide range of materials and configurations. In addition to works in which the badge forms are arranged across a flat surface, he produced works that place individual badges within regular grid-like compartments, as well as works with doors that open and close over those compartments. Variations in the placement and presentation of the badge forms stimulate the viewer’s memory and imagination, drawing attention to the very act of interpreting and decoding signs.This work was conceived as one half of a paired work. Its counterpart, WORK ’63-80 (Ode to the Tokyo Olympics) (1963–64), is in the collection of Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.