The Character of Characters
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.徐冰 汉字的性格 水墨動畫
Throughout his career, Xu Bing has grappled with the power of the written word. His iconic installation Book from the Sky (1987–91) surrounds the viewer with thousands of Chinese characters that, upon closer examination, are invented nonsense words. He followed that with Square Word Calligraphy (1994), a system for writing English that looks like brush-written Chinese; for readers of English, Square Word Calligraphy inverts Book from the Sky, providing a breakthrough to meaning where none was apparent at first. In this new work, created specifically for “Out of Character,” Xu continues to engage with the written Chinese word, providing a sprawling and thoughtful meditation on the development of Chinese characters and their systematization as calligraphy. For this video, Xu created over 1,000 individual sketches, which were blended digitally to generate this animation.
Throughout his career, Xu Bing has grappled with the power of the written word. His iconic installation Book from the Sky (1987–91) surrounds the viewer with thousands of Chinese characters that, upon closer examination, are invented nonsense words. He followed that with Square Word Calligraphy (1994), a system for writing English that looks like brush-written Chinese; for readers of English, Square Word Calligraphy inverts Book from the Sky, providing a breakthrough to meaning where none was apparent at first. In this new work, created specifically for “Out of Character,” Xu continues to engage with the written Chinese word, providing a sprawling and thoughtful meditation on the development of Chinese characters and their systematization as calligraphy. For this video, Xu created over 1,000 individual sketches, which were blended digitally to generate this animation.
Artwork Details
- 汉字的性格 水墨動畫
- Title: The Character of Characters
- Artist: Xu Bing (born 1955)
- Date: 2012
- Culture: China
- Medium: Five-channel animated video with sound, 17 min.
- Classification: Variable Media
- Credit Line: Commissioned by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco for the 2012 exhibition "Out of Character: Decoding Chinese Calligraphy" with support from The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation. Lent by the artist
- Rights and Reproduction: © Xu Bing
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art