Qiu Zhijie is creating calli-photo-graphy, in which he combines, performance, calligraphy and photography as means of exploring Chinese cultural identity in the face of globalization. In Light Writing-24 Seasons, 2005-2006 Qiu Zhijie brings the art of calligraphy into real space alluding to traditional landscape painting by the Chinese literati.
Light Writing-24 Seasons is comprised of 24 color photographs executed over 12 months. In this series, Qiu Zhijie, executes calligraphy in the air using a flashlight as his brush rendering the characters for the traditional 24 seasonal markers (jiegi) in the traditional Chinese calendar. The calendar is also referred to as the agricultural calendar (nongli) because originally the farmers closely observed this calendar. Close observance of the traditional calendar in pre-Modern China was a sign of fulfilling one’s duty to society based on the Confucian ideology that men plow and women sow. Adherence to the calendar ensured not only a successful year agriculturally but also seen as supporting the imperial reign.
As contemporary Chinese society became more industrialized, the agricultural calendar was used less and less. In contemporary Chinese collective consciousness, the names of the each of the 24 seasonal markers are not widely known. Qiu Zhijie in using the traditional agricultural calendar draws on the notion of loss of memory in China. This piece discusses the theme in the Avant- Garde of loss of memory of Chinese cultural identity.
The site for these calligraphy performances was chosen to represent the changing seasons, one for each of the 24 solar markers of the Chinese year. Each background is unique as the he locations range from Beijing, Macao and Dartington hall in England. Instead of drawing on traditional Chinese landscapes as the background for these photographs, Qiu Zhijie picks a new landscape of discarded buildings in China as a reflection of contemporary Chinese culture. Set against this new landscape, Qiu Zhjie renders each character backwards using a flashlight. In marking the space with the character for that season in light, he uses light as a metaphor to explore the relation of self and time. Captured by a camera set on a long exposure, the result is a photograph representing time and the passage of time.
The photograph Xiazhi (The Summer Solstice) uses the 798 Factory in Beijing, which is the hotspot of the art world in China, as the backdrop. (Image 10) In the photograph, a possible installation of a new exhibition is visible through the light in the window. Rendering the character for Xiazhi against the backdrop of a contemporary art center draws on the idea production of art and thus production of identity in China in the wake of globalization, urbanization, and westernization.
In Light Writing-24 Seasons, the body of the artist is sometimes visible signifying the relationship between the body and the passage of time. Juxtaposing old China, the traditional agricultural calendar, with the new China, the urbanized center, Qiu Zhijie through his work Light Writing- 24 Seasons explores how the individual self fits into the larger global culture.
[1] Qiu Zhijie, www.qiuzhijie.com/html/critiques/e-005.html, Accessed 6 December, 2009.
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