THE MUSIC OF INK AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM by EAPGROUP

Index | 127

Index | 129

126pp | 234 x 156mm | Soft cover ISBN-13 9781872843995 ISBN-10 1872843999 GBP (£) 16.95

The Music of Ink at the British Museum (ISBN-13 9781872843995), published 17 April 2012 to coincide with China Focus at the London Book Fair, is edited by Helen Wang with contributions by Denis Brown, Rohan de Saram, Romesh Gunesekera, Qu Lei Lei, Yang Lian, Wang Tao and Zeng Laide. The book’s varied articles address questions such as: How are contemporary artists, east and west, conveying and transforming the soul, philosophy and aesthetics of the classical traditions as they create their own work today? How are those traditions being consciously renewed and how do they remain active and alive in the modern world? Which traces of the old ink of centuries past are inspirational still? ‘The Music of Ink’ was a unique and experimental event at the British Museum in June 2005. It brought together well-known contemporary artists from Beijing, Dublin and London: literary artists Yang Lian and Romesh Gunesekera; visual artists Qu Lei Lei and Denis Brown; and performing artists Zeng Laide and Rohan de Saram The artists were invited to explore the creative links between the classical and the contemporary, both in their own work and with special regard to China. This book will delight readers who are interested in traditional and contemporary art, calligraphy, literature and music. For more information, including Ordering Info, visit —

SAFNET www.SaffronBooksandArt.net

《墨乐》思想—艺术项目思想定位《墨乐》思想—艺术项目由伦敦大英博物馆于二零零五年六月十八日举行。它将由当代著名中、西艺术家参与，配合同时在该馆举行的馆藏中国古代山水画展，完成一次既跨文化、又跨时间的思想交流。《墨乐》思想—艺术项目的主题是：探索古典与当代之间的创造性联系。这里“古典”具体指的是以汉字（引申为汉字书写和“书画同源”）为根基传承数千年的中国文化传统。 “当代”指的是包含东、西方在内的广义的当代艺术创作——当代中国艺术是这个“当代”整体的有机部分。 “创造性联系”，是指在当代思想的激发下，作为艺术家的个人从不同文化背景出发对古老汉字传统的“再发现”；以及如何通过自己的创作，创造性地转化中国古典绘画、文学、书法中的哲学和美学灵感。《墨乐》提出的核心问题是：哪些基因令中国文化传统历久弥新、并仍然能构成对今天世界的思想启示？一如《墨乐》的名称所示：古雅之“墨”，仍在奏出新奇之“乐”！《墨乐》思想—艺术项目是一场异国情调的文化观光，而是对一个深远古老的文化传统如何不断更新、并主动参与当代世界的思想探讨。

形式构思《墨乐》的形式结构，基于其思想定位，由三个层次的中、西艺术家之间的公开“对话”组成。对话者的座位将在舞台上，而“对话”则不仅在艺术家之间、也将在艺术家和听众之间进行。参与《墨乐》思想—艺术项目的艺术家是杨炼（诗人) 与 Romesh Gunesekera （作家），曲磊磊（视觉艺术家) 与 Denis Brown (视觉艺术家)，曾来德 (书法家) 与Rohan de Saram (音乐家)。

在中国报道的消息：《文艺报：美术专刊》，2005年7月5日

http://www.SaffronBooksandArt.net

The Music of Ink at The British Museum

The Music of Ink

at The British Museum

edited by Helen Wang

The Music of Ink at the British Museum Edited by Helen Wang ISBN-13 9781872843995 Soft cover ISBN-10 1872843999

Published by Saffron Books, EAP Cover: Chinese character for music, written in ink, Zeng Laide; Zen Barcode (The Music of Ink), Denis Brown Cover created by Prizmatone Design Consultancy, a division of EAP Book Design and Layout by Prizmatone Recto page 5: Here and Now, Qu Lei Lei 1992 (detail) Frontispiece: txtn iz messin, Denis Brown, 2006 Contents Spread Backdrop: Everyoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Life is an Epic, Qu Lei Lei, 2005 Copyright ÂŠ 2012. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form (graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or information storage and retrieval systems) without written permission of the publisher. Additional copyright restrictions apply, information about some of those appears as follows: British Museum images are reproduced with the permission of the Trustees of the British Museum. The Music of Ink photographs are reproduced courtesy of Louisa Selby. Copyright for all other images belongs to the artists EAP gratefully acknowledges the support of the British Museum in all stages of this publication The papers in this book represent the views of the individual authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of the British Museum or Saffron Books / EAP Published by Saffron Books, an imprint of EAPGROUP International Media Publisher and Editor-in-Chief: Sajid Rizvi EAP P O Box 13666 London SW14 8WF United Kingdom Telephone Facsimile

+44-[0]20 8392 1122 +44-[0]20 8392 1122

E-mail saffronbooks@eapgroup.com Web www.saffronbooks.com www.eapgroup.com Printed and bound in the United Kingdom British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

Artists’ Pages

The Contributors

Introduction » Helen Wang

1 Creative links » Yang Lian

2 The Bridge of Imagination » Romesh Gunesekera 25 3 Contemporary Western Calligraphy: An Artist’s Viewpoint » Denis Brown

4 Traces of the Heart: The Essence of Poetry, Calligraphy, Painting and Music » Qu Lei Lei 36 5 Yang Lian and Romesh Gunesekera in Conversation 44 6 Words from Two Visual Artists: A Summary of the Conversation between Denis Brown and Qu Lei Lei 59

Contents

7 The Music of Ink: Rohan de Saram and Zeng Laide

8 What The Music of Ink Means to Me » Zeng Laide

9 The Ink of Music: An Interview with Rohan de Saram

10 The Music of Ink: Dynamic Thinking in the Chinese Arts » Yang Lian

11 Tradition and Anti-Tradition in Contemporary Chinese Calligraphy » Wang Tao

Index

117

| THE MUSIC OF INK AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM

Zen Barcode (The Music of Ink), Denis Brown, 2005

Artistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Pages |

10 | THE MUSIC OF INK AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM

The essence (of anything unconsciously hidden becomes exposed and legible in writing), Denis Brown, 2005 Artistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Pages | 11

Here and Now, Qu Lei Lei, 1992, 114x140 cm. Collage: Chinese ink and paint on varieties of Chinese paper. The inscription reads: ‘Here and now is everything, just catch it, do not let it go’

Carry the Sun to My Land, Qu Lei Lei, 1994, 112x132 cm. Collage: Chinese ink and paint on varieties of Chinese paper. The inscription reads: ‘I was inspired by the old story of Kua Fu, who was determined to catch the sun … the toughness of his steps is because of the weight on his shoulders’

12 | THE MUSIC OF INK AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM

Recollections and Thoughts, Qu Lei Lei, 1996, 112x132 cm. Collage: Chinese ink and paint on xuan paper. The inscription reads: ‘We must not forget history’

Future, Qu Lei Lei, 1998, 112x132 cm. Collage: Chinese ink and paint on xuan paper. The inscription reads: ‘The future remains in our own hands’

Artists’ Pages | 13

14 | THE MUSIC OF INK AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM

The whole of history appears in silence, Qu Lei Lei, 1992. Central installation of the project, Here and Now. Found stones with natural patterns that Qu Lei Lei calls ‘calligraphy by God (or Nature)’ Artists’ Pages | 15

The Admonitions of the Court Instructress, detail, British Museum collection [BM 1913, 0708, 0.1]. See p102

16 | THE MUSIC OF INK AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM

The Contributors

Denis Brown followed a rigorous formal training in traditional calligraphy at the Roehampton Institute, London, studying with Ann Camp. He has since won awards and commissions on four continents, and is internationally recognised as a world leader in the field of letter arts, not only for his traditional calligraphy, but also for his highly original and experimental work in glass and digital art. He was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators (UK) (1988), and Fellow of CLAS, the Calligraphy and Lettering Arts Society (1994). He has also been the recipient of the Golden Web Award (2001-03), Crafts Council of Ireland awards (1989, 1992, 2003), RDS National Crafts Competition prizes (1989-1993, 1997-2000, 2003), the California Gold Medal (1989, 1992), the Boyne Valley National Art Competition (1990), the Philip T Brooks Memorial Prize (1991), the Muriel Gahan Scholarship (1992), the Glass Society of Ireland Award (1998, 2000) and first prize in Letter Arts Review (USA) annual review of 2003. He was nominated for the Japan Design Foundation, 6th Osaka Design Award (1992), awarded Honorary Membership of the Hong Kong Letter Arts Club (1998) and Honorary Membership of the Alpha Beta Club (ABC) in Hong Kong (2001). www.quillskill.com. Rohan de Saram studied the cello with Gaspar Cassado, Pablo Casals and John Barbirolli. He has played throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and the former Soviet Union and has worked with many composers, including KodĂĄly, Shostakovich, Poulenc, Walton, Xenakis and Berio. He is also well known through his work in contemporary music (as a member of the Arditti String Quartet), Eastern music, improvised music, and in solo and chamber music recitals with piano as well as other instruments. His recordings include: Benjamin Britten: Cello Suites no.1â&#x20AC;&#x201C;3 (CD: Montaigne MO-782081); Stefano Scodanibbio: My New Address (CD: Stradivarius STR-33668); Karlheinz Stockhausen: HelikopterStreichquartett (CD: Montaigne MO-782097); Allan Berg: Streichquartett op.3, Lyrische Suite (CD: Montaigne MO-782119); AMM: The Inexhaustible Document (CD: Matchless MR-CD13). www.rohandesaram.co.uk Contributors | 17

Romesh Gunesekera is the author of four novels: Reef (1994, Yorkshire Post First Work Prize, 1995; Premio Mondello Five Continents Asia Prize, 1997; shortlisted for the Booker Prize and The Guardian Fiction Prize, 1994), The Sandglass (1998), Heaven’s Edge (2002) and The Match (2006). His first book, Monkfish Moon (1992, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year), was a collection of short stories. He has also received other literary awards, such as the BBC Asia Award for Achievement in Writing and Literature (1998) and several poetry prizes. www.romeshgunesekera.com Qu Lei Lei 曲磊磊 was a founding member of the Stars Art Movement (1979), the inf luential group of Chinese artists who fought for greater freedom of expression within the arts after the Cultural Revolution. He came to London in 1985 and has since focused on painting, calligraphy and taichi, all of which he practises and teaches. In 2000 he was awarded the Millenium Adult Tutor Award (National Institute of Adult Continuing Education). He is also Honorary President of the Chinese Brush Painters Society (UK). In 2005 his exhibition Everyone’s Life is an Epic was the first solo exhibition by any Chinese artist at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. His publications include A Visual Diary (1996), Here and Now: to Face a New Century, Exhibition catalogue (1999), Qu Leilei Art Exhibition (2001), The Simple Art of Chinese Calligraphy (2002), The Simple Art of Chinese Brush Painting (2004), The Simple Art of Tai Chi: Step-by-step Fitness and Harmony for Body and Mind (2004) and Chinese Calligraphy: Standard Script for Beginners (2004). Helen Wang is Curator of East Asian Money in the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum. Her publications include Money on the Silk Road: the evidence from Eastern Central Asia to cAD 800 (2004), a number of books on the archaeologist Sir Aurel Stein and his collections – including Handbook to the Stein Collections in the UK (1999), and Sir Aurel Stein in The Times (2002), Metallurgical Analysis of Chinese Coins at the British Museum (2005), articles on East Asian money, and translations of contemporary Chinese literature. Wang Tao 汪濤 was educated at Yunnan Normal University (Kunming) and the Chinese Academy of Arts Graduate School (Beijing). He came to the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 1986, where he completed his PhD – looking at epigraphy and colour symbolism in ancient China. He has been teaching Chinese art and archaeology at SOAS since 1993. He now holds the joint Senior Lectureship shared between SOAS and the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. He has also worked with contemporary Chinese artists in setting up exhibitions and organising seminars. Yang Lian 楊煉 is one of the young ‘underground’ poets in China, who published the literary magazine Jintian (Today) in the 1980s. He became a poet in exile after the Tian’anmen Massacre in 1989, and has continued to write and speak out as a highly individual voice in world literature, politics and culture. He has published seven selections of poems, two selections of prose and many essays in Chinese. These include In Symmetry with Death (1989), Masks and Crocodiles (1990), The Dead in Exile (1990), Non-Person 18 | THE MUSIC OF INK AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM

Singular (1994), Where the Sea Stands Still (1995), Where the Sea Stands Still - New Poems (1999, a Poetry Books Society Recommended Translation), Yi (2001), Notes of a Blissful Ghost (2002) and Concentric Circles (2005). He was awarded the Flaiano International Poetry Prize (Italy, 1999). www.yanglian.net Zeng Laide 曾來德 joined the army in 1973, and was based in northwest China, where he engaged in combat, communications, cultural work and the creative arts. He started to learn calligraphy with the Hu Gongshi, became a Member of the China Calligraphers Association in 1982, and in 1984 came second in China’s ‘First National Wenhui Calligraphy Competition.’ In 1986 he was the subject of the film, The Army’s Inkman, which was translated into English, French, German, Spanish, Russian and Japanese. His first solo exhibitions were in Chengdu (1988) and Beijing (1989). Two touring exhibitions took his work all over China in the 1990s and his exhibition Return to my alma mater was presented at 100 universities in China in 2003-04. In 1999 he established the Laide Arts Centre in Beijing, which serves as his studio and as a centre for artists visiting from around the world. In 2004 he was appointed Professor at Beijing University and also transferred to the Chinese Academy of Painting as a professional calligrapher.

Contributors | 19

Denis Brown, the calligrapher, in action

20 | THE MUSIC OF INK AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM

Introduction

HELEN WANG

The Music of Ink was part of the programme of events accompanying the exhibition Mountains and Water: Chinese Landscape Painting at the British Museum (February to August, 2005). The programme also included a lecture, ‘Reading Chinese Paintings,’ by Craig Clunas, and a series of gallery talks. These focused on the world of Chinese painting. For The Music of Ink we wanted to do something different: to explore, to experiment, and to try to produce a creative environment in which the participants and audience might experience the excitement and pleasure of discovering something new and unexpected. The Music of Ink was a unique and experimental one-day event at the British Museum on Saturday 18 June 2005. We brought together six well-known contemporary artists from Beijing, Dublin and London: literary artists Yang Lian and Romesh Gunesekera; visual artists Qu Lei Lei and Denis Brown; and performing artists Zeng Laide and Rohan de Saram. We invited them to explore their work in pairs, in whichever way they chose, and in particular to explore the creative links between the classical and the contemporary, both in their own work and with special regard to China. The title of the event refers specifically to the idea of Chinese characters (zi 字), which form the backbone linking the past and present, offering poetic and visual artists in China endless possibilities for experiment. These characters, in creative writing as well as calligraphy, are traditionally written with a brush in black ink. But how are those Chinese traditions being consciously renewed, and how do they remain active and alive in the fast pace of the modern world? Which traces of the old ink of centuries past remain inspirational? Which music still sings? How do non-Chinese artists react to Chinese characters and writing? What kind of an impact do Chinese characters have on them? On a broader note, how are contemporary artists, east and west, conveying and transforming the soul, philosophy and aesthetics of the classical traditions as they create their own work today? Yang Lian and Romesh Gunesekera had worked together before on the British Council Writers’ Train Project. Denis Brown and Qu Lei Lei met for the first time on the Introduction > HELEN WANG | 21

Friday afternoon. Rohan de Saram and Zeng Laide met for the first time on the Thursday afternoon. Theirs was the most ambitious session of the event as they had agreed to try an experiment: both would perform at the same time, with Rohan playing the cello, and Laide performing calligraphy. It turned out to be quite a task! First, they each needed to get a feel for the venue: for example, the size of the stage and the layout of the auditorium, as well as the particular acoustics of a lecture theatre as opposed to a concert hall. Furthermore, as Rohan does not speak Chinese and Laide does not speak English, communication was either through interpreters or body language. A contradiction emerged almost immediately, when we discovered they had very different needs. For Rohan, time was an essential factor. For Laide, time was almost irrelevant; he wanted space and spontaneity! Laide had sent a box of very large sheets of xuanzhi (mulberry bark paper) made in Anhui province in the 1970s ahead of his arrival in London. Wishing to save this expensive material for the performance, he rehearsed by writing with a dry brush on the dry paper. As he wrote his way vigorously across the stage, Rohan remained seated to one side, generously inviting Laide to select the musical sequences he preferred. Together, we worked out the thinnest threads of timing. As the very short rehearsal time came to an end, our original idea of attaching a microphone to the calligraphy brush – so as to hear the music of ink – simply vanished into thin air. The performance by Rohan and Laide would be the first time they had ever performed together, and it would be an improvisation. This book is based on The Music of Ink event. The three sessions were recorded, transcribed and edited. In the first session, Yang Lian and Romesh delivered a substantial conversation with a very light touch; there are only minor edits to this transcription. In the second session, Denis and Lei Lei filled the screen with stunnning illustrations, but there were too many to reproduce here and the transcription has been edited quite substantially. It is impossible to recreate a performance of either music or calligraphy, and the transcription of the third session, with Rohan and Laide, although edited very lightly, can be no more than an outline. In addition to the transcriptions, there is also an essay from, or an interview with, each artist after the event. These offer a new dimension to the event. Finally, Wang Tao’s article on recent developments in the world of Chinese calligraphy offers a context in which to consider the calligraphy demonstrated and discussed at The Music of Ink event. The Music of Ink event was jointly organised with the Chinese Cultural Foundation (London), with assistance from the Great Britain China Centre. I would like to thank them both for their generosity and support. I would also like to offer special thanks to Shao Wei, Yang Lian and Wang Tao for their sustained enthusiasm and assistance, to Shen Ying, who was tireless in his practical help (and, when he finally took a rest late on the Friday night, had to suffer the mischief of London’s urban foxes, who ran off with his shoes), and to Pan Rui, Cheng Qian, Gao Jie and Shao Anding. Colleagues and friends at the British Museum contributed in so many ways, and I am particularly grateful to Andrew Burnett, Joe Cribb, Robert Knox, Elizabeth Errington, Vesta Curtis, Mary Hinton, Kirstin Munro, Louisa Selby, Dan Cowdrill, Chris Power, David Hogan, Valentina Marabini, Kusuma Barnett, Katherine Wilson and Robert Gwynne. Finally, I would like to thank Sajid Rizvi for offering to publish the proceedings and, as always, for keeping his word.

22 | THE MUSIC OF INK AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM

126pp | 234 x 156mm | Soft cover ISBN-13 9781872843995 ISBN-10 1872843999 GBP (£) 16.95

The Music of Ink at the British Museum (ISBN-13 9781872843995), published 17 April 2012 to coincide with China Focus at the London Book Fair, is edited by Helen Wang with contributions by Denis Brown, Rohan de Saram, Romesh Gunesekera, Qu Lei Lei, Yang Lian, Wang Tao and Zeng Laide. The book’s varied articles address questions such as: How are contemporary artists, east and west, conveying and transforming the soul, philosophy and aesthetics of the classical traditions as they create their own work today? How are those traditions being consciously renewed and how do they remain active and alive in the modern world? Which traces of the old ink of centuries past are inspirational still? ‘The Music of Ink’ was a unique and experimental event at the British Museum in June 2005. It brought together well-known contemporary artists from Beijing, Dublin and London: literary artists Yang Lian and Romesh Gunesekera; visual artists Qu Lei Lei and Denis Brown; and performing artists Zeng Laide and Rohan de Saram. The artists were invited to explore the creative links between the classical and the contemporary, both in their own work and with special regard to China. This book will delight readers who are interested in traditional and contemporary art, calligraphy, literature and music. For details about this book, including Ordering Info, visit —

SAFNET www.SaffronBooksandArt.net http://saffronbooksandart.net/The-Music-of-Ink-at-the-British-Museum

在中国报道的消息：《文艺报：美术专刊》，2005年7月5日

http://www.SaffronBooksandArt.net http://saffronbooksandart.net/The-Music-of-Ink-at-the-British-Museum