Xu Bing: The Character of Characters, coming soon

One of Xu Bing's sketches for The Character of Characters

One of Xu Bing’s sketches for The Character of Characters.

One of the most exciting things about Out of Character: Decoding Chinese Calligraphy is without doubt the new work acclaimed Chinese artist Xu Bing is creating for the exhibition.

Xu Bing’s work is an animation, but as it is being created right now there’s not a whole lot more we can tell you about it yet. However, we did just receive some amazing stats from the artist.

Each day 14 people (including Xu Bing) are working on the project. They work 10 hours per day and have worked 35 days thus far; a total of 4900 person hours to date. Given that work will continue through September, they expect a further 5600 hours to be added to this number.

Xu Bing has drawn approximately 50 drafts and more than 1000 hand drawn sketches. There could be thousands more sketches by the end of the project.

Given all of that, we’re expecting something extraordinary. Don’t miss it.

 

5 Responses to “Xu Bing: The Character of Characters, coming soon”

  1. Nancy  on August 22nd, 2012 at 8:48 pm

    I am so excited about this exhibit. I’m a calligrapher as well as a writer. Chinese calligraphy is an ancient art that is both art and writing; what they are doing is bringing an ancient art from into the 21st centuryl

  2. janet  on August 24th, 2012 at 9:36 am

    Thanks Nancy, we are getting pretty excited too! I didn’t know you were also a calligrapher – I hope you love the exhibition when it opens.

  3. Judith kingsley  on October 21st, 2012 at 7:23 pm

    I have been a professional artist for 42 years.Having studied calligraphy,as well as various forms of Asian Art on rice paper for many years in New York City,I am amazed how these studies have influenced all of my work over the years. So many of my paintings have a poetic,spiritual quality that viewers tell me that an Asian quality is obvious in my work.As the ancient Chinese scholars believed,I too paint from the soul,the ideas travel to my brain, to my arm,to my hand, and as had been stated”everything is spoken through the brushwork.”Both my oil paintings as well as my water colors reflect this process.It takes me time to develop a painting in this manner,but when completed, there is no greater satisfaction than to know that it is completely original, and when appreciated,extremely rewarding.

  4. kate  on October 27th, 2012 at 7:02 pm

    This animation piece is brilliant ! I loved it–so full of metaphors and meanings or a glorious piece of art in a purely visual sense. I have some idea about how much goes into a brief animation and I cant imagine how much work this must have taken.

    I only wish I could also have just one little piece of it !

    And where will it go when the exhibit closes ?

  5. janet  on October 29th, 2012 at 2:00 pm

    Thanks Kate! I love it too. I had the opportunity to walk through with one of our curators on a staff tour and the brief discussion we had piqued my interest even more. We have a publication on Character of Characters coming out soon, including an essay by Xu Bing – something to enjoy once it’s not on display. It should be in our store in November.

    I will check with our curators what the plans are for displaying the piece in future.


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