Liu Yonggang and the Images of Chinese Calligraphy
abstract
The idea that Chinese characters are essentially pictures interests many artists of the contemporary scene that use the ambivalence of Chinese calligraphy to break up the normative communication system. Liu Yonggang (Genhe, 1964) is a singular case because in Standing Characters he dismantles the ordinary reading process of Chinese characters, maintaining the cognitive purpose of the ideographic language. Since the use of words in Liu’s production is not limited to his renowned anthropomorphic sculptures, the paper presents the overlapping of visual and verbal languages in different artworks focusing on the ‘intermediality’ aspect of his art. The mutual references of word and image are investigated to unveil the artist adoption of words and pictures as a whole and a unique entity, rather than a totality of complementary and interrelated languages.
Keywords: Re-iconocity of characters • Iconotext • Liu Yonggang • 当代艺术 • Word-picture relationship • Chinese Contemporary art • 刘永刚