A Profound Simplicity
-- exploring the aesthetic combination of Chinese calligraphy and Western modern architecture
-- exploring the aesthetic combination of Chinese calligraphy and Western modern architecture
A profound simplicity is the recent studio practices including a series of abstract paintings based on the structure of ancient Chinese character and the architectures in the Lancaster University. Through the common visual and formal features of the characters and the buildings, this practice attempts to ponder the semiotic concept of art and architecture.
Like Klee’s interpretation of natural forms through abstract visual symbols, I understand the architectural language in relation to the structure of ancient Chinese calligraphy. For example, I reference both the plastic features of architectures and Chinese Seal Scripts (in the dictionary of ancient language). According to the similarity between visual forms, I abstract and exaggerate the geometrical structure of buildings and its surrounding by the associations of points, lines, colours and stamps in each small square visual plane.
I also see these calligraphy-like works as the architecture or landscape paintings rather than the Chinese language, as they are coming from the summary and purify of physical feature of buildings and environments, which based on the thought of methodology of ancient hieroglyphs. As I expect this work can represent a different way of visual perception, which is the way of looking the abstract works. In some extent, I consider this work as a kind of conceptual art, and photographs have been displayed here together as a whole of the work to provide and address the context and the visual sources beyond the work itself.
Chinese Seal Script is one of my references here. I believe that the ancient character embodies an original but profound thinking that human used to abstract the natural vicissitudes. It specifics the mode of ancient aesthetics as well as the progress of development of human civilization. However, the modern architecture, its structure and method of design and construction are the results of developing of modernist civilization. (The Lancaster campus has been formed and built since the middle of the 20th century.) I thus hope to explore, through this work, the conceptual crossing between original aesthetics and modernist architecture construction in order to bring some newly possible art forms to push the boundary of art and architecture.
When the art has been simplified to the rational order and pure formalist elements, the essence of signal and symbol aesthetics seems appeared.
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