ART / EXHIBITIONS

Records of the body, beyond the stage.

Theatre photographs, oshiguma face-prints, paintings — expressions that remain after the curtain falls. The notes below are by the KABUKI Universe editorial team; words from Danjūrō himself will be added as they are recorded.

01THEATRE PHOTOGRAPHS

Photographing the empty theatre

A theatre just after the audience has gone, moments before the lights go down: the air of a performance just ended, and four hundred years of time in one room. Why photograph the empty theatre? His own answer will appear here.

The whole auditorium seen from the back, seats running to the far wall; signed 'D-13' at lower right — Empty, all the way back

Rows of seats receding into the dark, signed 'D-13' at lower right — Receding rows — signed 'D-13' at lower right

A photograph of an empty auditorium, as exhibited — Hung on the stone wall

A photograph of vermilion seats, hung on wires against a white wall — Hung, seen head-on

A row of auditorium photographs lit along a dark gallery wall, one visitor silhouetted in the foreground — A wall of empty auditoriums, and one person looking

02OSHIGUMA

Oshiguma — the body's memory of one night

An oshiguma is made when an actor presses the painted kumadori make-up from his face onto cloth or paper after a performance. Even for the same role, no two are alike — each carries that night's sweat and force. It is at once a record of a performance and a singular work of art.

Read 'oshiguma' in the glossary

A wall of oshiguma: kumadori pressed onto vermilion paper, with one framed work and small photographs set around them — No two alike — a wall of oshiguma

03THE EXHIBITION

A wall of empty seats

At the exhibition these auditorium works ran the length of the wall. Each is a quiet photograph; seen in sequence, the colour and rhythm of each theatre's seating begins to separate. Below, works from the room.

The whole auditorium from the back, seats running to the far wall — Empty, all the way back

Rows receding into the dark, signed 'D-13' — Receding

A pale cityscape through a gap in the curtains — The city, outside

An empty auditorium, hung on a stone wall — On stone

The exhibition room: the auditorium series along the wall, framed works below — The room

Walking the length of the series — End to end

A corner of the room, the works at shoulder height — At shoulder height

A work suspended on wires falls exactly where the faces of the two people standing behind it would be

Where their faces would be, an auditorium.

The suspended work hangs at exactly the height of their faces. Everyone in the room can see it, and they stand there anyway. Of all the pictures from the exhibition, this one belongs with the works rather than the documentation.

04EXHIBITIONS