Chikako Hasegawa Exhibition

Radium von Roentgenwerke AG

Finished

Artists

Chikako Hasegawa

Hasegawa has been working on the series 'GIFT' since 2000, focusing on poison of all ages and places. 'Gift' is a paradoxical word, since it means 'present' in English but 'poison' in German. It is often said that all roses have thorns. Hasegawa intends to visualize the beauty and dangerousness of poisonous stuff.
For this exhibition Roentgenwerke will be showing about 10 works, from small to large, of her new series related to 'oshiroi powder' - the white base colour used for make-up in pre-modern ages. From ancient time, snow-white skin has been what many women yearned for, and there is a historical record proving that white makeup powder was already being used in the ancient Egyptian era. However, Oshiroi powder, introduced to Japan from China in around 200 AD, contained cerussite (white carbonate of lead) which is toxic for the human body. Its toxicity is so strong that it was used as insecticide.

Schedule

Nov 2 (Wed) 2005-Dec 3 (Sat) 2005