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Square Word Calligraphy

Inside An Introduction to Square Word Calligraphy textbook

Inside An Introduction to Square Word Calligraphy textbook

Inside An Introduction to Square Word Calligraphy

Practicing Square Word Calligraphy with its textbook and tracing book

26 letters in English alphabet written in Square Word Calligraphy

"Art for the People"

"Square Word"

PHOTO|VIDEO

For Square Word Calligraphy, Xu Bing designs a calligraphic system in which English words come to resemble Chinese characters. Like a linguistic breeder, the artist combines Chinese calligraphy with English writing to create a new “species.” However, it is different from the nonsense characters in Book From the Sky, which give the viewer a feeling of hesitation, suspicion, and confusion. When reading Square Word Calligraphy, such feeling is joyfully resolved with the sudden revelation that the work does contain “real” text. Thereby into the Western cultural sphere was written a brand new, Eastern art form. Established notions of Chinese and English no longer retain, and perceptual norms are reset, marking the new potentials that challenge the foundation of cognition itself.

 

After developing this lettering system, Xu Bing created a new installation piece modeled on adult literacy classes within the exhibition space. He also added a textbook, an instructional video, and a practice sheet just like those used in classroom settings. When the audience goes into the gallery, it is as if he or she enters a study space.


CHARACTER

Series

  • Square  Word  Calligraphy:  Gold  from  the  Stone

    2021
  • Square  Word  Calligraphy:  Mouton  Rothschild

    2020
  • Writings  at  Helin  Temple

    2015
  • Square  Word  Calligraphy:  Three  Indonesian  Proverbs

    2019
  • The  Grand  Canal

    2019
  • Square  Word  Calligraphy:  El  bon  poble

  • Magic  Carpet  

    2006
  • An  introduction  to  Square  Word  Calligraphy

    1994-1996
  • The  Horse  Keeps  Running  

    2008
  • Your  Surname  Please  

    1998

Cultural Animal

PHOTO|VIDEO

1994

Location: Beijing, China

Materials: Performance media installation with live animal / Live Pig, books, mannequin, wood blocks, ink


This work was created as an extension of an earlier project: A Case Study of Transference. A life-sized mannequin in human form, covered in false-character tattoos, was placed inside an enclosure containing a male pig, similarly tattooed. The intention was both to observe the reaction of the pig towards the mannequin and to produce an absurd and random drama -- an intention that was realized when the pig reacted to the mannequin in an aggressively sexual manner. The entire process was documented and the resulting photographs were exhibited several years after the event, in 1998. 


ANIMALS

Series

  • A  Case  Study  of  Transference  

    1993-1994

The Parrot

PHOTO|VIDEO

1994

Location: Beijing, China

Materials: Performance, mixed media installation / Live parrot 


For this performance art work Xu Bing trained a parrot to communicate certain sentiments to gallery audiences. For the duration of the exhibition, the parrot sat alone in its cage in the exhibition hall and quoted learned phrases, such as:

You people are so boring!

Modern art is crap!

Why are you holding me prisoner, you bastards!


ANIMALS INSTALLATION

American Silkworm Series 1: Silkworm Books

Live silk moths laying eggs on blank books, 1994-95

Details of the work

Work in progress: Xu Bing looking at his work, 1994-95

PHOTO|VIDEO

1994

Materials: Mixed media installation; live silkworms and books


Every summer since 1994, Xu Bing has undertaken a project in the United States involving the raising of live silkworms. Together, these projects constitute a single, ongoing series. In Silkworm Books, silkworm moths lay their small black eggs on the blank pages of open books. The thousands of black egg-markings create a "printed text" evoking the strange script of some mysterious, secret language. At the opening of the installation, the eggs are already very close to hatching. In the days following, as the eggs hatch the text is altered and dissipated as the black dots gradually disappear and transform into thousands of squiggling black lines (the young silkworms) that proceed to crawl out from between the pages of the books, startling the viewer confronted with these strange volumes.

ANIMALS INSTALLATION