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Age-old calligraphy takes new forms
June 29, 2010, Tuesday
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HANGZHOU is famous for preserving the culture of calligraphy and now it showcases imaginative calligraphy of the modern age - in dance, video and digital forms that give new meaning to the ancient art. Xu Wenwen paints a picture.
In the age of the iPad, brushes, ink and rice paper may seem an antiquated art of a bygone age, but the underlying ideas are vigorous and eternal, and modern artists are deconstructing characters into sculptures, video, fashion and installation art.
Once calligraphy was the exclusive province of China's literati, but today it is a medium that is open to everyone and can be used not only to reflect reality, but to critique it.
In this information era when iPads dominate millions of lives, why not type a message, rather than write one? And since all text can be printed, except for signatures, why bother about calligraphy?
The recent dazzling 2010 Modern Calligraphy Exhibition in Hangzhou has shown that writing is not the only way to realize calligraphy. The provocative exhibition titled "Writing/Non-writing" closed Sunday at the China Academy of Art after drawing throngs of visitors to see imaginative works of 99 calligraphers from around the world.
"The exhibition concentrated on how to merge calligraphy into modern life," says Wang Dongling, organizer of the show and president of the Hangzhou Calligraphers' Association.
"Calligraphy is a cultural resource enlightening other arts and cultures, no matter whether it is in ancient or modern times."
The exhibition featured calligraphy and Chinese characters not only on paper and fabric, but also on lighted surfaces, on mountains and piles of rubbish.
Dance, video and digital art express calligraphy.
A striking example is the "Poem of Mao Zedong" in New English Calligraphy created by Xu Bing, a major figure in Chinese "New Wave" art in the late 1980s. The artist invents his own characters by transforming English letters into characters' strokes and combining those letter-strokes into new characters. Both English words and pinyin (Chinese phonetics) are used in New English Calligraphy. For example, his name Xu can be turned into a character consisting of strokes of X and U.
"The wider occurrence of transboundary art, such as multimedia and calligraphy, shows the future of modern calligraphy and the walls between calligraphy and other fields and coming down," says Xu.
Back in 1985, some of China's New Wave artists kicked off the first innovative Modern Calligraphy Exhibition in Beijing. It mostly featured characters drawn into pictures or pictures written by characters.
As Chinese characters were basically pictograms, many innovators these days seek inspiration by turning back to their origins, to revive the most original spirit of calligraphy, and to offer today's culture some traditional inspiration.
Artists are trying to figure out new relations between calligraphy and modern art, between calligraphy and today's reality.
In the exhibition, the works "Imprison" created by Zhu Ming feature dozens of red characters of qiu (imprison) on a black cloth. The character qiu is written with a rectangle outside and the character ren (people) inside. The artist places the characters into reddish ellipses to look like fingerprints.
Thus, the message is that "people are living in an imprisoned condition that is actually an illusion created by society and their own desires, and imprisoned people may not know they are imprisoned," says the introduction to the exhibition.
"I've never felt such a unique pleasure before I create these works," writes the artist Zhu. "It's possible that calligraphy can critique reality, and this becomes a significant experiment."
Another work called "Dragon" by South Korean artist Yeo Tae Myong consists of two parts: one stroke of the character long (dragon) and the signature of the artist are written in calligraphy on paper. The rest of the character is formed by depicting implements of labor and workers' tools.
"This expresses joy and anger, together with the sorrow and pleasure of common working people in hemp cloth and straw sandals," according to exhibition notes.
Once good calligraphy, formed by years of practice, was a sign of education and good character. Calligraphy was not only an art but a lifestyle for ancient literati. The spirit of calligraphy is far more than writing itself; there are strong interrelations among writing, literature and culture.
But today calligraphy seems divorced from daily life and has become almost a pure art form. So the ink brush, the tool of calligraphy once as common as a pen, is now like the bow of a violin - only for artists or fans.
Thus calligraphers and artists face the question of carrying on the pure tradition or innovating and using calligraphy in different, meaningful ways - and many are combining both.
In the age of the iPad, brushes, ink and rice paper may seem an antiquated art of a bygone age, but the underlying ideas are vigorous and eternal, and modern artists are deconstructing characters into sculptures, video, fashion and installation art.
Once calligraphy was the exclusive province of China's literati, but today it is a medium that is open to everyone and can be used not only to reflect reality, but to critique it.
In this information era when iPads dominate millions of lives, why not type a message, rather than write one? And since all text can be printed, except for signatures, why bother about calligraphy?
The recent dazzling 2010 Modern Calligraphy Exhibition in Hangzhou has shown that writing is not the only way to realize calligraphy. The provocative exhibition titled "Writing/Non-writing" closed Sunday at the China Academy of Art after drawing throngs of visitors to see imaginative works of 99 calligraphers from around the world.
"The exhibition concentrated on how to merge calligraphy into modern life," says Wang Dongling, organizer of the show and president of the Hangzhou Calligraphers' Association.
"Calligraphy is a cultural resource enlightening other arts and cultures, no matter whether it is in ancient or modern times."
The exhibition featured calligraphy and Chinese characters not only on paper and fabric, but also on lighted surfaces, on mountains and piles of rubbish.
Dance, video and digital art express calligraphy.
A striking example is the "Poem of Mao Zedong" in New English Calligraphy created by Xu Bing, a major figure in Chinese "New Wave" art in the late 1980s. The artist invents his own characters by transforming English letters into characters' strokes and combining those letter-strokes into new characters. Both English words and pinyin (Chinese phonetics) are used in New English Calligraphy. For example, his name Xu can be turned into a character consisting of strokes of X and U.
"The wider occurrence of transboundary art, such as multimedia and calligraphy, shows the future of modern calligraphy and the walls between calligraphy and other fields and coming down," says Xu.
Back in 1985, some of China's New Wave artists kicked off the first innovative Modern Calligraphy Exhibition in Beijing. It mostly featured characters drawn into pictures or pictures written by characters.
As Chinese characters were basically pictograms, many innovators these days seek inspiration by turning back to their origins, to revive the most original spirit of calligraphy, and to offer today's culture some traditional inspiration.
Artists are trying to figure out new relations between calligraphy and modern art, between calligraphy and today's reality.
In the exhibition, the works "Imprison" created by Zhu Ming feature dozens of red characters of qiu (imprison) on a black cloth. The character qiu is written with a rectangle outside and the character ren (people) inside. The artist places the characters into reddish ellipses to look like fingerprints.
Thus, the message is that "people are living in an imprisoned condition that is actually an illusion created by society and their own desires, and imprisoned people may not know they are imprisoned," says the introduction to the exhibition.
"I've never felt such a unique pleasure before I create these works," writes the artist Zhu. "It's possible that calligraphy can critique reality, and this becomes a significant experiment."
Another work called "Dragon" by South Korean artist Yeo Tae Myong consists of two parts: one stroke of the character long (dragon) and the signature of the artist are written in calligraphy on paper. The rest of the character is formed by depicting implements of labor and workers' tools.
"This expresses joy and anger, together with the sorrow and pleasure of common working people in hemp cloth and straw sandals," according to exhibition notes.
Once good calligraphy, formed by years of practice, was a sign of education and good character. Calligraphy was not only an art but a lifestyle for ancient literati. The spirit of calligraphy is far more than writing itself; there are strong interrelations among writing, literature and culture.
But today calligraphy seems divorced from daily life and has become almost a pure art form. So the ink brush, the tool of calligraphy once as common as a pen, is now like the bow of a violin - only for artists or fans.
Thus calligraphers and artists face the question of carrying on the pure tradition or innovating and using calligraphy in different, meaningful ways - and many are combining both.
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