$4,400

Artwork Description

Manabu Hasegawa was born in Tokyo in 1973 and graduated from the Department of Printmaking, Faculty of Fine Arts at Tame Art University’s Department of Printmaking in 2000. He continues to work in Tokyo. His works involve a technique called “frottage,” in which paper is placed on uneven objects and rubbed with a pencil to trace their contours, creating a duality between two-dimensional and three-dimensional forms. From his childhood encounter with disabled veterans under the underpass of Ueno, Hasegawa began to question “why such a tragic war occurred” from the time he became conscious. The history of past wars and ongoing conflicts in distant countries appeared to the young Hasegawa as something imbued with a vague but palpable fear of death, leaving an indelible mark in his mind as an object that could never be ignored or silenced. The current production using frottage originated from the assignments Hasegawa undertook during his university days. It evolved from the nostalgia inherent in the materials of paper and pencil, the comforting feeling of being able to erase what is written, and the gentle connection to memories that arises from the pleasant vibrations and feel of writing transmitted by the pencil. For Hasegawa, these reasons have made paper and pencil a vital material and technique. In the past, Hasegawa also created frottage works of 500 skulls and 1000 statues of Christ repeatedly could be seen as training. From that experience, Hasegawa’s works moved beyond merely the visual language of original replicas, gradually transitioning towards expressions aimed at pursuing the contours of the “truth” that are not immediately visible. Hasegawa recounts that initially, the evolution of his current style stemmed from the affinity he found between the rigid, cold texture of guns and the leaden color of pencils. However, while handling weapons and military equipment, symbols that can be seen as bringing death, as the main themes of his works may have been unconscious, it may also have been a reevaluation and confrontation with the underlying issues of war-related questions and fundamental fears of death that he has harbored since childhood. In this regard, there may have been a certain inevitability in returning to and confronting these latent problems.