Clown No. 8

Clown No. 8 (1969) — with mica incorporated into its ink and color surface — belongs to Hagiwara's circus series, the clown's painted face and performative identity raising questions about surface and depth, appearance and reality that his abstract practice was also exploring. The clown's mask — a face painted over a face — was a subject rich with the philosophical implications that Hagiwara's mask series would investigate more directly in the same years. The mica adds the theatrical glitter of the performer's world to a meditation on concealment and revelation.