{"id":2488,"date":"2011-03-17T08:28:30","date_gmt":"2011-03-17T16:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/?p=2488"},"modified":"2012-11-20T14:13:33","modified_gmt":"2012-11-20T22:13:33","slug":"tao-is-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/17\/tao-is-up-2488\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tao is Up at Alameda Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"
This article originally appeared on March 17, 2011 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor.<\/strong><\/div>\n
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Feng Jin with Romancing the Metal, 2011. Copper and wood boards. Photo: Michael Singman-Aste<\/p><\/div>\n

Having studied Japanese for two years at the University at California, Berkeley, there was a time when I knew several hundred Chinese characters. I know I\u2019m rusty, but I can\u2019t make heads or tails of Feng Jin\u2019s characters. That\u2019s just fine.<\/p>\n

Although inspired by Chinese calligraphy, his work is not in fact a reproduction of Chinese verse in metal. Jin says that there are so many new words, in part because of the Internet.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s say this one called \u2018peace,\u201d he said, gesturing to one \u201ccharacter\u201d at random. \u201cYou and me, we say \u2018peace. My son, my family, all say that\u2019s \u2018peace.\u2019 And today I don\u2019t know how many people all say that\u2019s \u2018peace.\u2019 Next time we saw this word we call \u2018peace.\u2019 So it\u2019s a new mark \u2026 I want people to look at this one and not just say \u2018Chinese word.\u2019 You can see maybe Chinese guy made it. But nothing about Chinese.”<\/p>\n

The solo show of Jin\u2019s sculptures, \u201cThe Tao of Metal,\u201d opened at the Alameda Museum on March 5. A reception was held March 12.<\/p>\n

The fact that his \u201ccharacters\u201d are meant to be enjoyed purely aesthetically makes his work more accessible to a Western audience and gives them much broader appeal. Jin likens this appeal to the appreciation of Tang dynasty calligrapher Huai Su, whose \u201cwild cursive\u201d calligraphy is difficult even for Chinese speakers to decipher.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s writing a lot of things that are just words. Nobody knows what\u2019s that word,\u201d Jin said. \u201cA lot of professionals maybe know but a lot of people still don\u2019t know. But we like it. We enjoy it because the lines, the stripes, the power, the space, whatever, they have a lot of professional beauty right there \u2026 Just like installation art, or modern art. Just art! That\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the exception of a few freestanding sculptures studding the exhibit, all the work on display was created in the past year and a half, for which he fashioned 1,500 unique copper \u201ccharacters.\u201d Although not intended to retain their original meaning, a few of these pieces are in fact derived from actual Chinese characters.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I design using special pen, just writing Chinese word and cutting apart, but not too many,\u201d Jin said. \u201cAnd later bending the words to make new thing. You\u2019d never know this was Chinese character. I just bending everything. But some pieces when I cutting the thing outside the line I still feeling the Chinese calligrapher.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of Jin\u2019s pieces are \u201csigned\u201d with a plate which bears his name in English crafted in a highly stylized script which resembles Chinese writing. Jin compares this to the work of another Chinese artist, Xu Bing, who both creates work in which English looks like Chinese writing, and also created his own series of faux-Chinese characters which he then used to print scrolls.<\/p>\n

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Feng Jin. Foreground: Root, 2008. Patina on stainless steel and painted steel base. Background, from left: Ci, 2011. Copper and wood door; Round & Completed, 2011. Copper and wood doors. Photo: Michael Singman-Aste<\/p><\/div>\n

About half the pieces in the show are built upon doors. According to Jin\u2019s statement, the door is \u201ca background and an entry to introduce new form of Chinese calligraphy. Door not only represents \u2018in vs. out,\u2019 \u2018open vs. close,\u2019 \u2018acceptive vs. rejective,\u2019 but is also an entry in leading people to a new way, a way where either moving people forward or backward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of these doors were purchased secondhand. Others were traded by friends in exchange for brand new doors. He said to them \u201cyour door is beautiful,\u201d to which they often replied, \u201cI think it\u2019s ugly.\u201d<\/p>\n

These door pieces range stylistically from the minimalist \u201cFront Tooth\u201d \u2014 a cracked white door with a black border bearing a single central copper odontoid piece \u2014 to his \u201cRound & Completed,\u201d two doors painted bright reddish orange with 15 copper pieces arranged in a circle. Jin said he intentionally steered clear of using 12 characters to avoid stereotyping the work and causing confusion with the Chinese zodiac.<\/p>\n

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His \u201cNeo-Bronze Age\u201d stands out in gleaming contrast to the distressed doors.<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n
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Feng Jin, Neo-Bronze Age, 2011. Copper and stainless steel. Photo: Michael Singman-Aste<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u201cThis stainless steel looks like bamboo,\u201d Jin said. \u201cFirst, before Chinese make the paper they use bamboo or wood. And they use some kind of rope, just tie, like a book. From there I got some form. It looks like a bamboo book. And you look at this one (copper piece that) looks pretty old, maybe a thousand years ago somebody makes some work, and this (stainless steel) material is modern work. And it just makes modern\/old contact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jin\u2019s beautiful sculptures with their faux-Chinese characters provide form without meaning, a framework upon which the viewer can attach significance. \u201cThe Tao of Metal\u201d runs through March 30. Come see it for yourself. What do they mean to you?<\/p>\n

The Alameda Museum is located at 2324 Alameda Avenue. Their hours are 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. The museum is closed Monday and Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Michael Singman-Aste
\nPostdiluvian Photo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article originally appeared on March 17, 2011 in The Island. Michele Ellson, editor. \u00a0 Having studied Japanese for two years at the University at California, Berkeley, there was a time when I knew several hundred Chinese characters. I know I\u2019m rusty, but I can\u2019t make heads or tails of Feng Jin\u2019s characters. That\u2019s just […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23,4],"tags":[73,131,195,72],"class_list":["post-2488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","category-raves","tag-alameda","tag-alameda-museum","tag-feng-jin","tag-the-island"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pPxQO-E8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2488"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3868,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2488\/revisions\/3868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.postdiluvianphoto.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}