We are pleased to announce Feng Chen and Curtis Talwst Santiago's participation in "White Holes: The Mysteries and Modern Perceptions of Oracle Bone Script” at 798CUBE. The exhibition opens on July 1st, 2023, and will last until October 8th, 2023.
The well-developed turtle-shell divination practices of the Shang Dynasty eventually led to the advent of pictographic characters. Among such ancient pictograms, Chinese characters stood as the only ancient writing system that has survived through time until this day. Its longevity might be attributed to the significance of divination in traditional Chinese ideologies. Instead of using pronunciations to standardize the linguistic forms, pictographic characters employ simplified visual images that can be recognized by both humanity and divinity. According to Léon Vandermeersch, a French philosopher, the oracle bone divination process (using forms, sounds, and implications to create characters) is a pre-modern and “quasi-scientific” formula for rationalism, as well as the fundamental mechanism for creating systemic Chinese characters.
The exhibition aims to shape such a formula through inspections and observations. While it categorizes existing oracle bone scripts, ancient sacrificial vessels, tomb structures, and other primary sources through imagination, the exhibition attempts to unveil the mysteries of the dialogues between our ancestors and divinity hidden in the formula. Similarly, it also explores how the intent to connect with divinity, as a sample of iconography, influences the Chinese, if not the global, contemporary art world in terms of revisiting universal icons: recognizing the chaos inherent to order.
“Associative thinking”, a widely recognized concept in Sinology proposed by French scholar Marcel Granet, is oftentimes used to describe the fundamental way of thinking in the Chinese civilization. If we apply such an emphasis on simultaneity, symbiosis, and interaction to the exhibition’s “shaping formula”, we are to discover that the pictographic characters bridge through the universe and oracle bones (micro-cosmic landscapes), treating the two as variations of one single system under different contexts. The works in this exhibition might be able to strengthen the universality of “association” with a similar rationale and provide the prerequisites for transcending this adaptability.
The exhibition consists of three chapters: “Form,” “Sound,” and “Implication.” While “Form” and “Sound” constitute “Implication,” “Implication” interprets “Form” and “Sound.” White Holes is an exploration of the writing systems embedded in our memories. The recognition and utilization of these systems, instead of being two independent aspects, intertwine with each other.
White holes are theoretical cosmic regions that function in opposition to black holes. Theoretically, just as nothing can escape a black hole, nothing can enter a white hole. While black holes collapse inward and devour every matter around them, white holes radiate light, matter, and energy. Works of art shine periodically: the “halos” hide and reveal themselves through time.
Written by Yang Zi
July 1, 2023
