“The Beauty of Poison”- Hasegawa at Roentgenwerke

That suffering in Japan, from the 1600s to the first quarter of the 20th century, was often synonymous with with losing one’s mind; it could even mean even death, due to the lead poisoning from traditional white powder make-up. That make-up is immortalized best in the white faces of the women in Ukiyo-e prints. Hasegawa has taken several exemplary 19th century Ukiyo-e and built her digressive, historicized show around them.

The Ukiyo-e she used are covered almost completely with white mount boards in such way as to isolate square areas of the face, palms and feet, somehow always disfigured or giving that impression. Each work also gives the chemical formula of the poisonous lead substance that was surely on the faces of the women in the original works.

The opening of the show was accompanied by a performance incorporating traditional white make-up, by an artist with several decades of experience with theater make-up. The show, which unfortunately will not be repeated, was as beautiful as it was meditative. For about a half hour the face of a young lady became a white canvas for the make-up artist, who still practices his profession in Kabuki theaters. He first applied the infamous white powder, now lead-free, to the face and the neck of the model. Then, in a few quick strokes, triangles of pink cheeks appeared, the corners of the eyes became a bloody red and finally little red lips emerged as the final touch to the beautiful picture, a picture that differs slightly from the equally beautiful but often frightening older faces of the Ukiyo-e women.