Square Characters

 

2025

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Department of Visual Arts, Western University

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The “Square Character” series of artworks investigates the language of cultural translation by simplifying Chinese characters into a square format. “Square Character” is a term often used to describe Chinese characters visually. In this series, I use only the square format to represent the Chinese characters without showing any strokes or characters. I made two works in the series.

“Tang Poem” presents four Tang poems, which are Five-character (mostly) four-lined regulated verses, with only the embossed square in the poem’s format. These four poems are well known to most schoolkids in China at an early age. The poem’s title serves as the title for each set of prints. Every set includes two or three embossment prints with varying amounts of wood-burning residue on Stonehenge paper and one blind embossment on Somerset paper.

“Three Character Classic” (三字经) is an accordion-style artist book, made with blind embossing on Japanese Kozo paper and clothed board covers. The total of 1068 embossed squares represent 1068 characters in the traditional entry-level Chinese textbook used for hundreds of years.