The so-called creative calligraphy is a writing method based on the philosophy of ancient calligraphy and the meaning of words. Moreover, it breaks through the solidification and control of people's thinking by the original structure of Chinese characters, and gives Chinese characters a new form of deconstruction and personalized creative expression. ——Shi Feng
A brief review and analysis of Shi Feng’s “Creative Calligraphy”
Text/Zhu Sirui
Picture/Shi Feng
Design The calligraphy of teachers and painters pay more attention to the composition consciousness of the overall plane and the combination relationship of points, lines and surfaces in the painting style. For example, Gu Gan, Wei Ligang, Shi Feng and others regard writing as the image of a book, from the meaning of the word, form, and word. and the aesthetic laws of abstract art, giving writing a modern aesthetic consciousness, trying to break the traditional precepts, paying more attention to self-interpretation, re-perceiving Chinese characters with a sense of defamiliarization, trying to distance itself from traditional writing, and whether The calligraphy is no longer important, but the essence of Chinese characters’ shapes and concepts.
This essence is more obvious in ancient Chinese characters, such as oracle bone inscriptions, seal script, and bronze inscriptions. The decline of this characteristic begins with the practical function of words, and the emotional expression in writing is the awareness of the meaning of the text, the environment, and the mind, but the words still have practical functions. As a text for functional reading, the standardization of its writing has been replaced by printing. Today, if we continue to write traditional calligraphy, its meaning is more inherited, and it is difficult to pioneer and innovate.
What modern calligraphy should do, I think, is to liberate words from their functions on the basis of partially absorbing the essence of traditional writing, regard the structural rules of words as the structure itself, and use this structural thinking It also incorporates modern and contemporary art and even interdisciplinary design ideas to restructure the image of the book, and has the courage to break the combination of brushwork, stroke order, materials, etc., so that Chinese characters can become independent from sentences and poems and become an aesthetic entity of their own.
Chinese characters were born from images. In the process of evolution, due to the needs of pronunciation, shape, meaning, etc., they gradually took on a symbolic appearance. However, the way in which the radicals and radicals are combined and the words are connected to form phrases have become the basis of the language. The combination relationship is an abstract evolution from image to imagelessness in appearance, but it is different from the letter generation method and syllable formation method of other characters in the world. It still retains the independence of a single character.
The unique knot method of Chinese characters is so concise that when it is horizontally, vertically, it has completely become an art of spatial structure. The evocation of beauty is the coincidence of the lines in the knot and the basic laws of formal aesthetics. Western plastic arts also follow this common need for formal beauty for all mankind. Its modeling cornerstones are also spatial, structural, and architectural. The difference between the spatial extension of the two-dimensional space of words is the introduction of a deep three-dimensional consciousness, and modern Painting gains freedom by reducing depth and moves toward abstraction. From a certain perspective and sense, it can also be said to be approaching the Chinese character-like spatial structure.
Therefore, we will see the pursuits of Mondrian, Klee, Newman, Kline, etc., and we will also see Zao Wou-Ki's early attempts to incorporate text structure into abstract art after receiving such feedback. Various experimental attempts in modern calligraphy are also a desire for innovation fed by feedback. But if we truly understand the root thinking process of the formation of Chinese characters, we will find that some of the aesthetic thinking that is closely related to Chinese characters in this kind of feedback is actually the filtered nutrition that has gone around a big circle from export to domestic sales.
Shi Feng’s recent Chinese character writing touches on returning to the image, imagining and colliding with the “image” itself, not returning to traditional pictograms, but based on the laws of formal beauty. In terms of the modern "image", the abstracted image of Chinese characters is re-abstracted, not from the concrete abstraction, but from the abstraction of symbolic words. As long as this exploration goes deep, new Chinese character writing It will inevitably open up a rich world, and then enter a world of abstract painting that borrows words to create images.
Shi Feng explained that the so-called creative calligraphy is a writing method based on the philosophy of ancient calligraphy and the meaning of the words. Moreover, it breaks through the solidification and control of people's thinking by the original structure of Chinese characters, and gives Chinese characters a new form of deconstruction and personalized creative expression.
It is true that for a very good artist, it is very valuable to be able to skillfully control a variety of artistic expression languages ??and styles. This means that it is not only a self-challenge, but also a reflection of personal talent and style. ability. In this regard, Shi Feng's quick thinking, diligence, diversity and creative spirit, as well as his grasp of different art forms, have given him all potential and all possibilities.
2020.9.11 Zhu Sirui
Zhu Sirui, a member of the Yunnan Artists Association and a member of the Association’s Theory Committee, has studied at Yunnan Wenshan College, Yunnan Art Institute, and China Art Research Institute, and has many works. He has participated in exhibitions inside and outside the province and has been published in various newspapers, magazines and albums.
Artistic creations include oil painting, ink painting, installation, performance, photography, poetry, etc., which have been published and published in "Meiyuan", "Jiangsu Pictorial" and "Jianghu" (Chinese Folk Poetry Magazine of Leiden University Library in the Netherlands) Special collection paper), "Dianchi", "Influence", "Art Grand View", "Art Vision", "Contemporary", "Border Literature" and other publications have published more than 190,000 words of art criticism and poetry, and some oil paintings have been collected by people at home and abroad.
The author of the Chinese and English bilingual "The Blade Cutting Through Inflated Desire—Jianghai Commentary" (2014, China Today Art Publishing House) and "Intangible Cultural Heritage Painting Art" (author) (2016, Yunnan Fine Arts Publishing House) ) and poetry collections "The Scale of Time" and "A Cup of Moonlight" (produced in 2019).
Tasting and appreciating the "Tao" and "Learning" of Shi Feng's creative calligraphy
Shi Feng is an independent artist, freelance writer and senior designer. Cultural interviewer of "International Online", cover star of "People of the Times", and winner of the New Silk Road Cultural Promotion Award.
Born in Shaanxi in 1967, he now lives in Xi'an. He has been studying painting since he was a child, and his works were published in magazines and newspapers when he was young. He has been engaged in multimedia and Internet-related design work, and has engaged in a wide range of cross-border and art categories. He is now engaged in contemporary art creation and theoretical research.
Adhering to the artistic style and painting concept that combines magical deconstruction and geometricism, using artistic methods and angles to reveal the essence of human nature, dissolve the appearance of things, deconstruct real life, and create art with soul and faith. .