adjectives:monochromatic
traditional
unfamiliar
foreign
difficult
calligraphic
propaganda
historical
cultural
pensive
angular
vertical
grandiose
conceptual
thoughtful
stream of consciousness
This work, Quotations from Chairman Mao by Xu Bing comes from his Square Word Calligraphy project. When one first glances at this work, it seemingly becomes immediately clear that this is another example of the long cultural tradition of Chinese calligraphy. The calligraphic hand-drawn "characters" are organized following a vertical orientation with variances in thick and thin lines presumably made with ink and brush. The characters consume the paper which formulate large hanging scrolls. They hang on the wall with presence-demanding attention from the viewer. This makes the viewer unable to disregard the work. With a closer look, it becomes evident that what appears to be unfamiliar illegible Chinese characters to a non-Chinese reader are in fact English words disguised as Chinese characters. This calligraphy fuses two very different languages. It disregards to pre-conceived notion held by many non-Chinese reasers that Chinese is difficult to learn and extremely hard to read. When one reads the English words organized in a vertical format, they discover that they are reading the words of Chairman Mao Zedong's words based on his thoughts of art and literature at the Yenan Forum. I find this very interesting. Xu Bing lived during the Cultural Revolution and was one of many thousands of young people sent to the countryside to be "re-educated". Not allowed to read Chinese literature, the only appropriate reading material during this period was Mao's Little Red Book which contains similar sentiments to those seen here. It appears that Xu is re-examining his generation's relationship with culture and the written word-a basic element of culture. Square Word Calligraphy also depicts several works of poetry by Chinese and American poets. I am curious why he chose the works he did? To simply represent literature from these two cultures? Is there a more meaningful connection here? Like the presumed connection he has with Mao Zedong and his rhetoric? Finally, if indeed he is interested in cross-cultural connections between Chinese and English, why doesn't he make characters masked as letters?
I am very intrigued by this piece. I wish that I was able to see it full scale as I can imagine it is a demanding piece. I wonder if because of its size it is passed by in a museum. I would be interested as the artist of this piece to see how many people turn away from it because it appears to them as nonsensical text and may be somewhat intimidating. I like your question about what doesn't he make characters masked as letters, this would certainly fulfill his interest in the connections. I am interested to see what more you learn in further research of this work.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw a Square Word Calligraphy, I thought it was just a normal Chinese calligraphy piece. Then... Wait! I can't read any of these!!! The idea of writing English using Chinese was shocking, but very cool.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know mush about Xu Bing. But I can somehow relate to his experience. My grandpa went through the cultural revolution as Xu did. He was locked up in a stable because he was educated and holds a college degree. Luckily he wasn't killed in the cultural revolution, but my dad's entire family was sent down to the rural area to re-educate.