Press Release: December 2019 edizioni FoscoFornio today announces publication of Critical Moss- Art outside the Bubble The book's title plays on the proverb “a rolling stone gathers no moss”, to suggest making art in a rural context might be impeded by the lack of a critical mass of fellow artists. The book identifies decisive responses... Continue Reading →
On Sunday 8th December 2019 members of the International Research Centre for Calligraphy (IRCC) from the University of Sunderland participated in the Words Weekend Festival at the Sage Gateshead. We demonstrated Arabic, Chinese and Western calligraphy, introduced and explained the different scripts and writing materials, and allowed festival goers the opportunity to write themselves. The... Continue Reading →
During my time at the LanTing Academy of Calligraphy I made a special study of the writer, painter and calligrapher Xu Wei, 徐渭 (1521–1593). He lived in ShaoXing – called ShanYin during the Ming Dynasty – at the ‘Green Vine Studio’ (青藤書屋), which is now a small museum dedicated to his art (fig. 2). He... Continue Reading →
My three month visit to ShaoXing is now over; I learnt a huge amount about Chinese calligraphy through practicing it myself, observing others, and from interviewing expert practitioners. I had classes on cursive scripts, calligraphy creation and on the relation of Chinese painting to calligraphy. As well as learning cursive calligraphy I also wrote some... Continue Reading →
I have been studying the cursive scripts while at the LanTing Academy of Calligraphy: the running script of Mi Fu (米芾), running cursive of Xu Wei (徐渭), cursive of Wang Xi Zhi (王羲之), Wang Duo (王铎) and Huang TingJian (黄庭坚) and crazy cursive of Huai Su (懷素) and Zhang Xu (張旭) , among others. This study can... Continue Reading →
In January this year I was awarded a scholarship to study cursive calligraphy at the LanTing Academy of Calligraphy at the University of ShaoXing. My research method has an ethnographic element to it, so studying Chinese calligraphy in situ, as a participant observer, is an important initial stage. ShaoXing is a city of about 5... Continue Reading →
Several of my artist friends with postgraduate Fine Art degrees have expressed an interest in pursuing practice-led or practice-based doctoral research (see Christopher Frayling’s distinction, 1993). However, there is usually some misunderstanding about the nature of such research. PLR looks like tempting extension of what an artist does anyway, indeed there seems to be a... Continue Reading →
My essay "Drawn Words: Pictographs in the Chinese language and visual culture" has now been published in the journal: Drawing: Research, Theory, Practice Volume 3, Number 2, pp. 229-240 1 November 2018 Vol. 3 (2) is a special issue concerned with the relationship of drawing and language. Abstract: This essay considers the presence of pictograms – drawings... Continue Reading →
In March 2018 my PhD research was confirmed and given the green light after a presentation and question and answer session with senior academics at the University of Sunderland. The research title is: Calligraphy as Embodied Practice: a Cross-Cultural Investigation into Embodiment and Corporeality in Chinese and Western Calligraphy. I will be studying the relationships... Continue Reading →
On 15th March 2018 I participated in a "Cultural Evening" organised by the charity ICOS in Sunderland. ICOS provide assistance to people arriving in the UK from abroad, everything from providing free English classes, to applying for visas, to general cultural integration. Maggie gave a presentation about Taiwanese culture and I lead an informal workshop... Continue Reading →
Calligraphy Research 