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| Title: | 婆慈満裏園, Baji rien wo mitsuru: “Nan’s compassion fills the back garden” |
| Media: | Ink on paper & digital artwork |
| Size: | 43 cm by 24 cm (framed/mounted size: 63 cm by 43 cm) |
| Date: | 2024 |
Description
This is a piece that I created in order to demonstrate the importance of the spacing between characters in calligraphy. It is the final line of one of my poems, and I wrote it in Zhou-dynasty seal script.
I used AI to create an animation (opens in a new window). Click on the “Play” button to set the characters moving about the page randomly. They will bump into each other, the signature and seal, and the page borders. Click on the “Pause” button to stop the characters in their current positions. Click on the “Reset” button to return the characters to their original positions. Adjusting the “Temperature” slider increases and decreases the speed at which the characters move.
Two Japanese avant-garde calligraphers once said that, “in the best calligraphic works, the white space resembles the surface of a pond or river, upon which characters drift.” By watching the animation, you can see that this assertion is ridiculous.
In calligraphy, we capture motion and freeze it in time. The juxtaposition of dynamic strokes and their fixed positions creates a tension that gives calligraphy its power. Shifting the positions of the strokes breaks that tension. There is a Japanese phrase which, I believe, is used in kendō and is appropriate here: 静中動、動中静 (JP: seichūdō, dōchūsei) “movement in silence, silence in movement.”
What is more, calligraphic strokes are written fluidly, and the position, size, and quality of each is determined by the strokes that come before and after it. This happens both within and between characters in “the best calligraphic works.” Changing the relative positions of strokes breaks up the rhythm of the piece as a whole.
Information
| Title: | 画竜点睛, Garyū tensei: “Dotting the eyes of painted dragons” |
| Media: | Ink on paper |
| Size: | 43 cm by 24 cm (framed/mounted size: 63 cm by 43 cm) x 2 (diptych) |
| Date: | 2025 |
Description
Because the Japanese written language uses Chinese characters, it is possible to read Chinese literature in Japanese with a little training. The grammar of the two languages is different, so the order in which the characters are read changes slightly. Moreover, the Japanese language uses additional phonetic characters to conjugate verbs, act as prepositions, etc.
This was one of the first pieces of Chinese literature that I studied in Japan: an old Chinese story about painting dragons. I loved hearing my teacher read it in Japanese, and as I was reminded of it while painting the dragon on my jacket (see below), I thought it would be fun to try writing the story in Japanese, using both Chinese characters (kanji) and Japanese characters (kana).
The original text is as follows.
張僧繇呉中人也。武帝崇飾仏寺多命僧繇画之。金陵安楽寺四白竜不点眼睛。毎云点睛即飛去。人以為妄誕固請点之。須臾雷電破壁両竜乗雲騰去上天。二竜未点眼者見在。
In Japanese (and written in the Roman alphabet), it would be read as follows.
Chōsōyō wa go chū no hito nari. Butei butsuji wo sūshoku shi, ōku sōyō ni meijite, kore ni egakashimu. Kinryō no anrakuji no shihakuryū wa, gansei wo tenzezu. Tsune ni iu, “Hitomi wo tenzeba, sunawachi tobisaran to.” Hito motte moutan to nashi, kataku kore wo tenzen koto wo kou. Shuyu ni shite raiden kabe wo yaburi, ryōryū kumo ni nori, jōten ni noborite saru. Ni ryū no imada me wo tenzezaru mono kenzaisu.
Translated into English, it would be something like the following.
“Zhang Sengyou (a monk) was a native of the kingdom of Wu. The emperor of the time wanted to demonstrate his piety, so he had Buddhist temples decorated, and Zhang was asked to help paint many of them. At the Anle Temple in Jinling, he painted four white dragons but did not add pupils to their eyes. He said, “If I add the pupils, the dragons will fly away.” The people of Jinling got together and foolishly demanded that Zhang add the pupils. (He complied and added them to two of the four dragons.) Not long afterwards, the wall on which the dragons were painted was struck by lightning and destroyed, and the dragons rode up to heaven on a cloud. The two dragons to which Zhang did not add pupils remain to this day.”
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| Title: | 禿龍, Hageryū: “Bald dragon” |
| Media: | Fabric paint on denim |
| Size: | 30 cm by 21 cm (painting only) |
| Date: | c. 2006 (retouched 2024) |
Description
I originally painted this dragon about 20 years ago because I wanted something cool to wear to a rock concert in Tokyo. Last year, though, the jacket got put in the wash, and most of the fabric paint came off. I decided to redo it, and while painting it, I was reminded of the story about painting dragons above.
Naturally, I added the pupils last.
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| Title: | 王維詩 山居秋暝, Ōi shi sankyo shūmei: “Mountain Retreat at Dusk in Autumn by Wang Wei” (Jazzigraphy 3) |
| Media: | Ink on paper |
| Size: | 24 cm by 43 cm (framed/mounted size: 43 cm by 63 cm) x 3 (triptych) |
| Date: | 2024 |
Description
This is a piece that I wrote in cursive script as part of a collaborative project that I undertook with my nephew. You can read more about the project here, and you can watch a video of the writing of the piece below.
Information
| Title: | 天不天不, Tenpu tenpu: “Heaven not, heaven not” (Jazzigraphy 2) |
| Media: | Ink on paper |
| Size: | 43 cm by 24 cm (framed/mounted size: 63 cm by 43 cm) |
| Date: | 2024 |
Description
This is another piece that I wrote in cursive script as part of a collaborative project that I undertook with my nephew. You can read more about the project here, and you can watch a video of the writing of the piece below.
Information
| Title: | 淡暴折帖, Tanbō orijō: “The Folding Book of Faint Violence” |
| Media: | Cinnabar ink on baking paper mounted in a specially adapted lever arch file with A4 light pad |
| Size: | 17 cm by c. 500 cm (framed/mounted size: 64 cm by 35 cm by 8 cm) |
| Date: | 2025 |
Description
For a full description of this piece, please watch the video below.
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| Title: | 張九齡詩 望月懐遠, Chōkyūrei shi bōgetsu kaien: “Gazing at the moon and yearning for one far away by Zhang Jiuling” |
| Media: | Ink on paper |
| Size: | 57 cm by 26 cm (framed/mounted size: 85 cm by 45 cm) |
| Date: | 2025 |
Description
A love poem by Zhang Jiuling written in Qin-dynasty seal script.
海上生明月，天涯共此時。
情人怨遙夜，竟夕起相思。
滅燭憐光滿，披衣覺露滋。
不堪盈手贈，還寢夢佳期。
In English:
A bright moon rises over the sea; from far away, we share this moment.
Lovers complain of the long night, rising and thinking of each other till dawn.
I extinguish the candle, and moonlight fills the room; putting on my robe, I feel the damp of the dew.
I can’t bear to scoop this light and send it to you, so I return to sleep, dreaming of our next meeting.
Information
| Title: | Welcome to Our World or 色即是空, Shiki soku ze kū: “Form instantly transmutes into void” |
| Media: | Three-dimensional computer-generated animation |
| Length: | 1:00 |
| Date: | 2025 |
Description
I tried several times to carve a wooden ball with the character 色 (JP: shiki; “colour/form”) on one side, the character 空 (JP: kū; “empty, void”) on the opposite side, and “tunnels” joining the parts where the two characters overlap. This would be a physical representation of “form instantly transmuting into void”!
However, my tools were not precise enough…
A friend suggested getting the ball digitally printed. I had spent a while studying 3D computer graphics several years ago, and I had a lot of fun brushing off the cobwebs and creating my virtual wooden ball.
I was put in touch with a fellow UEA student who not only knew about digital printing but also had his own digital printer. After a few mishaps, I was presented with the printed object.
Receiving the digitally printed ball.
Sadly, the ball itself needed quite a bit of additional work and was not ready in time for the exhibition. However, I decided to use the 3D data to create the animation above to promote the exhibition.
I asked my nephew Billy (with whom I collaborated on the Jazzigraphy project) to come up with a soundtrack. He duly obliged. What you can hear is composed from samples of string-section flourishes from the Jim Reeves classic “Welcome to My World” and me saying the words shiki and kū. As brilliantly odd as I had hoped for.
About Mashū
Matthew giving a demonstration and explanation of calligraphy.
You can read about Mashū by clicking on this link.