LANGUAGE AND TEXT: ARTISTS
QIU ZHIJIE
( b.1969, China )
Tattoo 1 (1997)
Background
Fujian born Qui Zhijie works conform to the long tradition of copying calligraphic
master works yet his interest is subverting the status quo. By using the
body, creating works that are temporary and challenging the conventions
of ancient masters, Qui Zhijie’s artworks are postmodern and conceptually
powerful.
Practice
Artworks
In the piece Writing ‘The Orchid Pavilion Preface’ One Thousand
Times (1986-87) Qui faithfully copied a traditional poetic calligraphic
masterpiece’s preface. Qui Zhijie copied the piece repeatedly onto
the one piece of paper, thus rendering it black with ink. Thus it appears
to be erased rather than rendered beautifully and therefore conveys a sense
of time, and a challenge to tradition. The work could be seen as a performance
piece.
The works Tattoo 1 and 2 (1997) connect both body and text. Here
the artist is photographed looking at the camera and on his body and the
wall behind is the word ‘Bu’ or ‘no’. Another of
these images shows the artist and the wall behind covered in small silver
tacks. This offers a satiric and metaphorical symbol of the way culture
is an intrinsic part of the self.
Fine calligraphy signifies a mastery that includes freedom and spontaneity
and force. There is a contradiction here since the freedom is not any kind
of spontaneity it is the internalisation of external constraints so deep
they become in a real sense ‘second nature’ like bones to the
body.
Hodge and Louie, The Politics of Chinese Language and Culture:The Art
of Reading Dragons, Routledge , London, 1998, p.49)
Postmodern Frame
Like Xu Bing and Gu Wenda , works by Qui Zhijie use the calligraphic mark
to challenge the conventions of the artworld, aesthetics and permanence.
Works by Qui Zhijie differ from those by Xu Bing and Wenda Gu because of
the way the body has been incorporated into the art work as a ritualised
performance. The documentation itself is effective as a critique of art
conventions, offering postmodern understanding of the concepts of permanence
and beauty. Qui Zhijie Interface series (2000)In the Interface ( 2000)series,
the artist has transferred the patterns from an engraved bamboo mat onto
human skin. In creating a work that is temporary, he is rebelling against
the traditions of metal and stone carving. In using the body, he is also
presenting an ambiguous layering of the sensual and the lyrical, both disturbing
and subversive to the conventions of ancient Chinese calligraphy.
References
ecfa.com
artnet.com
This provides Curriculum Vitae information and images of Qiu Zhijie latest
work
freewaves.org
This site provides biographical notes but also provides access to a short
video by Qiu Zhijie in which text and ancient fragments and artifacts are
overlaid onto landscape, linear prints and a figure constantly gesturing.
The use of gesture and sign language create a sense of the relentlessness
of time and the entrapment of culture.
www.hanart.com
Site provide information about the artist, including an artists statement
and images if the artist’s most recent exhibition Light and Words
23rd July – 10th August 2005 which document an installation of English
words in light in the landscape.
query.nytimes.com
This page provides a review of Qiu Zhijie’s work
Goodman,J.,Qiu Zhijie, ( Text) Art Asia Pacific Issue 37, 2003 (Jan, Feb
March), p.50
Chui,M., Use of text in Contemporary Chinese Art (Qiu Zhijie, Xu
Bing, Wenda Gu
Art Asia Pacific issue 29, 2001- Art and Language p.78