Plorealista

Lu Xinjian: Invisible Poems

Second of two posts looking at the work of artist Lu Xinjan from Shanghai.

In this series of paintings, what appears to be a random patterning in Lu’s trademark style actually conceals lines of poetry which under closer inspection can be found.

From an essay about the series, ‘Showing The Invisible’, by Mark Talaco:

I believe this is what we seek through art – both from the creative and the receptive side – something that can encapsulate that which is not there, create something from the nothingness in order to view  it as something. It is our sound and fury, the idiotic tale of we poor players.

Some of the questions that arise as I try to write an introduction to
explain what Lu Xinjian has done in his new series Invisible Poem are: Where do the arts blend? Can one arrive at the same place when looking at the painted poem as one does when reading it? Is the route
quicker for one over the other?

By taking poems about Love written by poets from different times and
cultures and recoding the letters and characters into his unique design of simple line, shape and colour, Lu Xinjian asks us to rethink language and challenges the boundary between poetry and visual art to see how the two overlap and complement each other while still retaining their own meaning.

You can see more examples at Lu Xinjian’s website here, or at Art Labor, a Shanghai art gallery currently showing the artists work, here.

Previous post about the artist: Lu Xinjian: City DNA

(via pavlovzz)