Microsoft Word - 39-SSMI2160排版295-302.docx BCP Social Sciences & Humanities SSMI 2022 Volume 17 (2022) 295 Breaking through the Traditional barrier: the Performability of Asian Action performance Calligraphy Xinqi Li University of The Arts London, London, United Kingdom Abstract. This article in Harold rosenberg of the proposed action painting, on the basis of the Asia movement performance calligraphy this specifically for the art of calligraphy artist form new schools were discussed, based on a number of calligraphy artist used by art material, creative process, and the comparison of relevant context and discourse, to introduce a number of calligraphy artist's unique art form. The feedback of interviews with artists will be used as references and their representative views will be presented completely. It proves that the performance forms and artistic concepts of Asian calligraphy artists make calligraphy's territory no longer limited to visual art or shaping art, but also invade into the country of language art and performing art. Keywords: Calligraphy creation; Performing arts; Break through the traditional. 1. Art is an action of the heart When it comes to artistic movement, people first think of music, dance or drama. It is only through movement that can be called performance that artists can show their efforts and emotions to the audience. Are there any movements performed when writing calligraphy? Whenever a calligraphy work is unveiled, people will see what the calligraphy artist has accomplished and want to show the audience the final result. However, it is not known how the calligrapher accomplished it. But there are some illuminating facts that suggest calligraphy can be a performance. The term action painting was coined by the American art critic Harold Rosenberg. It refers to the work of a group of American abstract expressionist painters who, from the 1940s to the early 1960s, made extensive use of this method during the turbulent period after World War II. Action painting is sometimes called abstract expressionism. Rosenberg regards "American Abstract Expressionism" as "action painting". The reason why "action painting" can come into being in the United States is that there is no painting tradition in the United States, and painters are willing to try to create works without style or against style, emphasizing the randomness, spontaneity and nihilism of works. Second, in the thirties of the 20th century, the integrity of the person being broken, traditional is interrupted, the continuity of culture appear rupture, avant-garde artists detect cultural inner failed, they no longer believe in the 19th century the focus of the modern art - form can evoke deep feeling and the basic experience, to request a new life form and letter type of art. Rosenberg considered Pollock, Hoffman, and de Kooning to be action painters, and Newman came close. Their common creative concept is that no object or idea is worth painting, the artist's activity is to do important things. Rosenberg said, "Art is an act of the mind in which the body has its place." This style is more about painting and expressing the physical act of the artist's emotions than accurately depicting realistic scenes and recognizable forms. The action painting genre is most used in western abstract painting. Based on the feedback of interviews with many artists, this paper takes the interviews as references and presents their representative views in the following table. This article on the basis of the motion picture, action performance calligraphy in Asia that specializes in the art of calligraphy artist Asia form new schools were discussed, based on a number of calligraphy artist used by art material, creative process, and the comparison of relevant context and discourse, to introduce a number of calligraphy artist's unique art form. BCP Social Sciences & Humanities SSMI 2022 Volume 17 (2022) 296 Table 1. The following table is a list of interviews that author conducted with Asian calligraphy artists Number Questions Answer 1 Why did you choose this new way of presenting calligraphy? I want to reshape the concept of traditional Chinese calligraphy, to create provocative art, which I mean more action, more like performance to do art. 2 How exactly would you do your "performance calligraphy"? I really enjoy being connected to music, I use wired headphones (both ears), play music constantly and follow the rhythm of the music, so it's important for me to choose the right music because I'm influenced a lot by the rhythm of the music. 3 What music do you usually listen to when you are writing calligraphy? Although I am influenced by many Western arts, such as action painting and abstract art, I still like to listen to Chinese songs and even traditional Peking Opera when I am creating, because the rhythm of Peking Opera changes rapidly and it is easy for me to enter the state of creation. The accent of Peking Opera makes me feel more like performing. 4 What is your creative media? Unlike traditional calligraphy, I often use a large mop to write on the walls. 5 I know you were write seldom times on rice paper, so where do you enjoy writing? Sometimes I feel that traditional rice paper cannot fully satisfy my desire for expression, so I am looking forward to writing and creating in a large area. Such as all’s/boards/stones/mirrors, etc. 6 Among the media you mentioned, the mirror is a modern medium. Why did you choose the mirror for the first time? Glass as a modern medium, to writing on it, the light projected will produce new and different light and shadow effects, hoping to present a kind of emotional release. 7 Although your work is presented in a modern way, do you still write traditional poetry or buddhist philosophical messages? There is no limit in the content of my works. For a period of time, I mainly studied the garbled code, which was not real Chinese characters, it was changed the garbled code after the crash of the computer into meaningless images, all of which were created randomly. These are the ones that I find interesting and want to continue exploring. 8 Why do you want to explore garbled code? In order to think about the relationship between language and characters and their meanings, I want to do things that others cannot understand in the way of an ascetic monk, with a heart of reverence for art. It is not until these fake Chinese characters become real images that art forms the torture of culture. Until then, we all believed in the authority of culture, until the appearance of fake Chinese characters made us rethink the meaning of language. 9 What’s the point of including English in your garble? It was a reflection on the nature of language that led me to invent these English words. Letters in English words become elements in the structure of Chinese characters. This "guess “becomes a lot of fun. The process of understanding these English words has become the most direct collision between Chinese and Western contexts. 10 Is there anything that you find particularly difficult or often pay attention to in your creative process? Because my works involve the integration of Chinese and Western cultures, it is actually quite difficult. After all, I need to find my own identity in the Oriental culture and integrate my cultural beliefs into the context of the world. 2. The characteristics of action painting calligraphers in expression Do calligraphers still use normal size brushes to create? Before we discuss this question, it is important to understand the size of the brush used by the average Asian calligrapher. According to the study, a common calligraphy brush is 25 to 27 centimeters long, enough for 99 percent of BCP Social Sciences & Humanities SSMI 2022 Volume 17 (2022) 297 calligraphers to create on rice paper. The remaining 1% or even fewer calligraphers, whose 25 to 27 cm brushes can no longer contain their creative passion and desire, need stronger language and means of expression (Figure 1). Fig. 1 Traditional normal brush size First, according to Japeness artist Yuichi Inoue's portrait records, it is clear that the brushes he used in each of his creations were much longer than 25 to 27 centimeters. His brush is thick, but it's still bottoms clustered, so when he uses the brush, all the power is concentrated at the bottom, so it's very powerful to use. Unlike ordinary calligraphers who emphasize writing only with the wrist, or even with one arm, Oike uses the width and power of his whole body to write, and uses the power of his whole body to press down with the ink brush, thus ultimately creating those strong strokes that create huge works of art. And "strength beauty is one of the most basic formal beauty in all kinds of art aesthetics. Calligraphy, no matter what font or style, must be based on force." Strength is divided into strong force and soft force. Strong brushstrokes are conducive to the display of the spirit of the font, which combines the powerful force of the imposing manner with the graceful and concise fruity force to show the beauty of the calligraphy lines (Figure 2 and Figure 3). Fig. 2 Yuichi's artistic creation process BCP Social Sciences & Humanities SSMI 2022 Volume 17 (2022) 298 Fig. 3 Yuichi's artistic creation process In addition to Yuichi who uses a huge size brushes, then, introduce the creation material of Youlong, a calligrapher from China. The biggest difference between Youlong and traditional calligrapher is that Youlong is made of large cleaning mob which used at random family, and does not use rice paper as the artistic medium. Instead, Youlong often creates with nature, such as the external walls of houses to be demolished and the stones beside streams as his canvas. In addition to Yuichi who uses a huge size brushes, then, introduce the creation material of Youlong, a calligrapher from China. The biggest difference between Youlong and traditional calligrapher is that Youlong used large cleaning duster cloth to write which can easily foud at random family, he does not use rice paper as the artistic medium. Instead, Youlong often creates with nature, such as the external walls of houses which going to be demolished and the stones beside streams as his canvas. Apart from Yuichi, who uses giant brushes, Chinese calligrapher Long You works with different materials. "The tools and materials the calligrapher chooses have a direct effect on the style of the work." The biggest difference between Long You and traditional calligraphers is that Long You uses huge cleaning rags, which can be easily found in random homes, and he doesn't use rice paper as an artistic medium. Instead, You Long often works with nature, such as the facade of a house that is about to be demolished, and the stone beside a stream as his canvas. The following picture is the works of longyou calligrapher obtained by the author through inquiry. In the picture, we can find that long You, a calligrapher, uses the outer wall and stone as the canvas to express the unrestrained and aesthetic characters (Figure 4 and Figure 5). Fig. 4 Longyou works on the walls of a house that will soon be demolished BCP Social Sciences & Humanities SSMI 2022 Volume 17 (2022) 299 Fig. 5 Longyou created the unreadable code on the stone Returning to Asian action performance calligraphy, this genre reflects not only the innovation and diversity of creative materials, but also the unique process by which artists create using these special and custom materials. A video of Yuichi writing with a large brush shows him walking barefoot on a large piece of rice paper, writing with a giant brush and going all out. He would often jump back and forth on a large sheet of rice paper, Shouting and Shouting into a state of despair. This is Yuichi's unique writing ritual, his way of liberating himself and his calligraphy. Taking Chinese characters as the carrier of textual meaning as a fresh object, he wrote with his expressive body and poured his own power into these objects, responding to contemporary aesthetics with a unique form of expression. At the same time, with the help of materialized Chinese character semantics to present their own inner world. If Yuichi's immersive creation is a dynamic form of performance that does not care about other people's opinions, it can be clearly shown in the interview that some artists use earphones to listen to traditional Chinese opera to accompany his creation. Although their creative thinking is influenced by a lot of Western art, such as action painting and abstract art, they still like to listen to Chinese songs when creating, even the most traditional Peking Opera, because the rhythm of Peking Opera changes quickly, which makes it easy for artists to enter the creative state. The Peking Opera accent made him more immersed, as if he were performing. Many movements in classical opera, such as hair tossing and stage steps, have certain rules. Calligraphy in the brush is also the standard of the program, but real art can only be innovated and developed by breaking through strict restrictions. Many artists combined with Peking Opera, and such works are generally smooth and full of stories. The story here can be understood as the emergence of Peking Opera and the influence of calligraphy artists. The last thing that needs to be introduced is perhaps the most important and indispensable part of a good work. That's the context of the artist's work. Through documentary and video records, we can find four classic paintings of "Yi Zi" in yuichi's creative heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, and explore the characteristics and changes of artists' use of pens in different stages. The word has special meaning for Yuichi, who lost consciousness for eight hours in 1945 when his elementary school was bombed by U.S. forces. He later described seeing an image of Sakyamuni reading the Lotus Sutra to him, followed by a rain of flowers. When he woke up, he called it a miracle and decided to write flowers. So he's been writing about flowers since the fifties. Different from traditional Asian calligraphy, he uses contemporary art to expand the boundaries of calligraphy by exaggerating the shape of Chinese characters and transcends the constraints of characters themselves. Yuichi regards the visual composition of calligraphy as the overall picture processing, and contains the concept of spatial structure between strokes. The geometric layout recreates the performance of writing and creates a new image relationship. The last is probably the most important and indispensable part of a good book. This is the background of the artist Yuichi's work. Through literature and video recordings, we can find four classic paintings of Flowers from the heyday of Yuichi's creation in the 1970s and 1980s, and explore BCP Social Sciences & Humanities SSMI 2022 Volume 17 (2022) 300 the characteristics and changes of artists' use of pens at different stages. The word has special meaning for Yuichi, who lost consciousness for eight hours in 1945 when his elementary school was bombed by American forces. He later described seeing images of Sakyamuni reading the Lotus Sutra to him, followed by a shower of flowers. When he woke up, he called it a miracle and decided to write down the flowers. So he's been writing about flowers since the '50s. Unlike traditional Asian calligraphy, he uses contemporary art to stretch the boundaries of calligraphy by exaggerating the shapes of characters, beyond the constraints of the characters themselves. Ochi regards the visual composition of calligraphy as an overall picture processing, which contains the concept of spatial structure between strokes. The geometric layout recreates the expression of writing and creates a new image relationship (Figure 6). Fig. 6 Yuichi Inoue-Hana(Flower) The context expressed in Youlong's work is unique, and he mainly studies garbled codes. And the garbled code here, it's not real Chinese characters, it's a computer crash that converts the garbled code into meaningless images, all of which are generated at random. In order to think about the relationship between language and characters and their meanings, Youlong wants to do something that others cannot understand in an ascetic way, with a reverence for art. It is not until these fake characters become real images that art becomes the discipline of culture. Before that, people believed in the authority of culture, until the appearance of fake Chinese characters made people rethink the meaning of language. At the same time, the garbled code presented in his works also has the transformation of English words. According to his interview with Youlong, he said it was his reflection on the nature of language that led him to invent these English words. Letters in English words become elements in the structure of Chinese characters. This "speculation" becomes very interesting. The process of understanding these English words has become the most direct collision between Chinese and Western contexts in his works. On the other hand, there are artists whose work is unique in the context of their work, and they mainly study gibberish. And the garbled code here, it's not real Chinese characters, it's a computer crash that converts the garbled code into meaningless images, all of which are generated randomly. In order to think about the relationship between language and writing and its meaning, the artist wanted to do something that others could not understand in an ascetic way, with a reverence for art. It is not until these false figures become real images that art becomes a discipline of culture. Until then, people believed in the authority of culture, until the appearance of fake Chinese characters made people rethink the meaning of language. At the same time, the garbled characters presented in his works also have the conversion of English words. According to the interview, the artist said his reflections on the nature of language led him to invent the English words. Letters in English words become elements in the structure of Chinese characters. This "speculation" becomes very interesting. The process of understanding these English words has become the most direct collision between Chinese and Western context in his works. BCP Social Sciences & Humanities SSMI 2022 Volume 17 (2022) 301 In the 1950s, Japanese calligrapher Yuichi revolutionized traditional Japanese calligraphy by creating one-character works that burst forth the dynamism and energy of performance. Now, we live in the 21st century, where a group of calligraphers from China have teamed up with Peking Opera to paint seemingly meaningless ICONS of remade texts on huge walls and stones, forcing and leading audiences to rethink and evaluate the hidden contents of texts from their own unique perspective. Although these calligraphers lived and created in different times and places, they all produced compelling graphic works with a unique genre of art, namely Asian action performance calligraphy, which challenges our perceptions of familiar figures and symbols. Thus, entirely new genres include calligraphy, abstract expressive art, musical aesthetics, contemporary visual culture, and historical traditions. 3. Calligraphy as a "dance on the paper" It is a very important phenomenon that calligraphy becomes a performance, and it is enjoyable to watch the creative performance process of a valuable calligrapher. But calligraphy is a real work after all, and it needs to be written out. Calligraphy, as a performance, can only be a branch of calligraphy action and cannot develop independently. All accomplished artists have never subscribed to the idea of performing for the sake of performing. So, no matter when and where, as long as the show in front of the public, calligrapher always keep a kind of spontaneous emotions, audience performance criteria are mainly based on the artist's sincere degrees as well as the free expression of feelings, rather than gestures of how natural and unrestrained, external form is the inevitable result of the external form should be sincere. Perhaps the calligraphers themselves at first thought that this kind of behaviour was not necessary to be watched, they just wanted to create their own works in a smooth style, so as to better express their emotions. Later, the interest in written performance was made possible by art historians' attention to the evolution of this hidden expressive movement into an immaterial performance. Calligraphy into performance is a very important phenomenon, and it is a joy to observe the creative performance process of a valuable calligrapher. But calligraphy is a real work that needs to be written. As a kind of expression, calligraphy can only be a branch of calligraphy behavior and cannot develop independently. All accomplished artists have never accepted the idea of performing for performance's sake. Therefore, whenever and wherever they are displayed in front of the public, calligraphers always maintain a spontaneous emotion. The performance standard of the audience is mainly based on the sincerity of the artist and the free expression of emotion, rather than the natural and unrestrained gesture. External form is the inevitable result that external form should be sincere. Perhaps the calligraphers themselves at first thought that the act was not necessary to be watched, and that they simply wanted to create works with a smooth style in order to better express their feelings. Later, interest in written performance was made possible by art historians' concern with the evolution of this hidden expressive movement into an immaterial performance. What is discussed here is that the action of writing itself can certainly become the aesthetic element of calligraphy, but the action of writing should be reflected in his works. After all, whether critics, audience or artists themselves see the implied meaning of action in a calligraphy picture, which is more important and more practical than the action table. There is a kind of invisible body in calligraphy, and the work presented is itself a video record of the artist's intentions and decisions, which the audience only needs to see as a trace after the performance. In short, calligraphy can be regarded as a kind of performance art, just as the singing of songs, the performance of music, the action and dialogue of drama, the jumping and rotating of dance, calligraphy writing is also a kind of performance. The so-called performance means the "second creation" of the "original work". "First in the works" is only a kind of abstract existence, through creative performance, obtains the real existence and the concrete existence. The "preexisting works" of drama are scripts, the "preexisting works" of music are music scores, and the "preexisting works" of calligraphers are words. The creation of calligraphers is to perform characters through writing. But BCP Social Sciences & Humanities SSMI 2022 Volume 17 (2022) 302 writing is a complex, at least form and meaning. You Long's "garble" is a good way to think about the complexity of the meaning of words. Generally speaking, performing art is dynamic art and calligraphy is static art. Kim Hak-ji once said, "It is a moving line when a calligrapher swings, and its dynamic beauty can be seen when people appreciate it, but it is fixed on the ground and shows a form of stillness." In the physical sense, that is right, but from the perspective of phenomenology further consideration, turn out to be a real calligraphy aesthetic experience, should be given according to the work of drawing symbols, back and rebuild the calligraphy creation process, in the heart of the imagination calligraphy rewrite again, experience of calligraphy "intentionality", make the work performance. From the perspective of phenomenology, works of art are not natural aesthetic objects. Works that have not been appreciated and accepted are only unfinished works, while finished works are aesthetic objects. In the acceptance of calligraphy, the lines fixed on the paper are "phenomenological reduction" and become living aesthetic objects. Therefore, the "dynamic beauty" presented by calligraphy works and the performance of calligraphy are true, intuitive and self-evident facts. In the field of performing arts, the art closest to calligraphy is not painting, but dance. Therefore, calligraphy is also known as "dance on paper". The performance and dance in the process of calligraphy creation make the works show the beauty of various shapes and images. The essence of calligraphy lies in the way and process of brushwork. It is because of performance that words as symbols come to life. The performance forms and artistic concepts of Asian calligraphy artists make calligraphy's territory no longer limited to visual art or plastic art, but also invade into the realm of language art and performing art. References [1] Rosenberg, Harold. Art and packaging. Translated by Zhengzhu Qian and Dongshan Xie. Yuanliu publishing company, 1998, p. 234 [2] “Action Painting Movement Overview.” The Art Story. Accessed March 31, 2022. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/action-painting/. [3] “Brushes for Chinese Brush Painting.” Jackson's Art Blog, July 16, 2020. https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2017/01/27/brushes-chinese-brush-painting/. [4] Daxu Li: Exploring the application of formal Beauty Rules in calligraphy teaching, Education and Occupation, 2008, no.3. [5] “Inoue Yuichi.” 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Accessed March 31, 2022. https://www.kanazawa21.jp/data_list.php?g=78&d=140. [6] “Media Alert: Christie's to Present Virtual Private Selling Exhibitioncharacters – Joyce Pensato X Yuichi Inoue.” Christie's Auctions & Private Sales. Christie's, May 12, 2020. https://www.christies.com/about- us/press-archive/details?PressReleaseID=9629. [7] Yunfei Meng: On the Influence of Tools and Materials on Calligraphy Style -- A Case Study of Pen, paper and Ink, Fine Arts Overview, 2019, No.9. [8] Yuichi Inoue: The liberation of Calligraphy. Workshop: ‘Yuichi Inoue: Liberation of Calligraphy’ Workshop. HK ARTION, May 6, 2019. https://hkartion.com/2019/04/20/yuichi-inoue-liberation-of- calligraphy-workshop/. [9] “Hana Inoue Yuichi, Curator Karena Lam - YouTube.” Accessed March 31, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5A3qBErRHCQ. [10] “Yuichi Inoue: Hana - Flower: Contemporary Art Day Sale:” Sotheby's. Accessed March 31, 2022. https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2020/contemporary-art-day-sale/yuichi-inoue-hana-flower- hua. [11] Xuezhi Jin: Theory of Calligraphy aesthetics, Shanghai Painting and Calligraphy publisher, 1984, p. 7