The minimal simplicity of her compositions masks her strongest attribute: the ability to express the aesthetics of “yohaku”, or the space between things. Indeed, it is the silence found within her negative spaces which heighten and accentuate her Nihonga works to epic proportions.
Similarly, ‘providence V’ is a double-panel painting on platinum leaf that calls to mind the conjuration of holy saints, their presence omnipotent, lingering, yet intangible. Inspired by the Buddhist statues of the Joruri-ji Temple in Kizugawa in southernmost Kyoto, Hasegawa was awe-struck by the solemn beauty and presence of these holy bodies, who for centuries have protected the people of this mountainous region from harm, and who have been revered by the people as their divine protectors throughout the ages.
Wanting to capture and limn the sacred providence that permeates from these statues in abstraction, it is the atmosphere that surrounds these sacred bodies that is paramount to the artist; what is left to the imagination is thus both mystic, divine and poignant, accentuated by the elegant beauty of her platinum leaf, the vivid colours of her pigments, and the depths imbued by the movements of her charcoal ink that ripple throughout the entirety of the work. It is the bold, Zen-like minimalism of the painting that attests to Hasegawa’s growing confidence as a painter, fully captured in the words of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, “Less is more.”
