engraving

installation

Wang Chaoying | China

Born in Shanghai in 1958. Graduate of Shanghai University of Chinese Language and Literature; graduate of Musashino Art University of Visual Communication and Design, Japan; has been teaching at the Musashino Art University of Visual Communication and Design in Japan and at the Shanghai University of Engineering Science for many years. Numerous publications on his scientific research concerning a lost Chinese hieroglyphic script. Co-founder of JIBO, a network of artists, which connects China, Japan, and Europe and has already carried out many projects.

In his first exhibition of contemporary art Wang Chaoying is presenting a wall inscribed with Kanji. Original pages from the holy book of the Chinese people during the times of the Cultural Revolution are the basis of Wang Chaoying's work. The pages list over 400 typical Chinese family names - they stand for the people of China who were completely overrun by this monstrous movement. The kanji he chose to use were created when the first emperor of the Qing dynasty asserted his control by introducing a standardized script.
The character for engraving is a wild boar combined with a knife. The first animals to be domesticated, they were marked with the intention to leave traces, to mark one's property and to communicate this to the world. The tradition of tattooing is a symbolic act of engraving onto the skin, the symbol intended to have an effect on the spirit of its bearer.
Wang Chaoying's work liberates the script from its historic context. Through his work Wang casts a critical glance at today's Chinese society, their perspective of the world in general and themselves in particular.
The characters penetrate deeply into the pages and mutate into an oversized seal.
For many years he has been dealing with one of the last hieroglyphic scripts still in use today called Dongba. Collecting fragments of the lost Miyabi script and restoring them is an essential part of his artistic work. Hieroglyphs are based on an unpretentious and strong expressiveness, which is inspired by nature and a simple way of life. Wang Chaoying is searching for ways of communication to overcome all language barriers, and he is convinced that the hieroglyphic scripts of the past bear the potential of establishing a modern, globally comprehensible form of communication.