Chinese to English: Taikang Space Art Retrospective Sample | |
Source text - Chinese 徐冰《毛主席语录——在延安文艺座谈会上的讲话》
徐冰的“新英文书法”从上世纪80年代开始就一直备受世界瞩目。徐冰在东方与西方最基础的文化符号中,寻求到某种内在一致性与形式契合点,从而创作出一系列连结东西文明的《新英文书法》作品。新英文书法以毛笔为书写工具,将英文字母的书写方式中国化,保留汉字的方块结构,和中国古典竖排文字书写形式,形成一种既熟悉又陌生的文字形式。它的阅读规律是从左到右,从上到下,从外到里。
这件《毛主席语录—在延安文艺座谈会上的讲话》所书写的内容是毛泽东在1942年发表的《在延安文艺座谈会上的讲话》。《讲话》中“艺术为工农兵服务”的文艺路线影响了一个时代的艺术方向和一辈人的艺术追求,徐冰以“新英文书法”的后现代主义艺术形式成功消解了“讲话”的时代内涵,不过消解并非为了“虚无”其意义,而是构建一个具有当下时代价值的更广泛的共鸣之意。 | Translation - English Xu Bing, Quotations of Chairman Mao- Speech at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art
Xu Bing’s “New English Calligraphy” has attracted worldwide attention since the 1980s. He searches for a certain uniformity and confluence in form between the most fundamental cultural symbols from both the East and the West. In doing so he has created the work New English Calligraphy, a piece linking together the civilisations of the East and the West. The artist uses a traditional Chinese writing brush as a tool to Sinicise the letters of the English alphabet, retaining the block like structure and vertical format of classical Chinese characters, creating a script that is both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. The script is read from left to right, top to bottom, outside in.
The written content of the piece Quotations of Chairman Mao- Speech at the Yan’an Forum of Art and Literature is taken from Mao Zedong’s 1942 “Speech at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and Art” in which the official line of “art being to serve the workers, peasants and military” appeared, influencing an entire generation of artists and artistic pursuit. Through the use of his postmodern “New English Calligraphy”, successfully dismantles this concept, however this dismantlement is not done in the name of nihilism, rather it is created to evoke a broader sympathetic response with the values of the modern age. |