Lunisolar Calendar #

from the series Panoptic Segmentation
2022-2023
Performance, Letterpress print on 24 bound sheets of Chinese paper, 69 x 165 cm

The character 明 (Míng) is composed of 日 (rì) and 月 (yuè), representing sun/day and moon/month in Chinese respectively. When combined, 明 (Míng) embodies meanings like light, tomorrow, and to understand. The connection between 日 (rì) and 月 (yuè) is evident in Chinese culture’s lunisolar calendar, which blends lunar and solar aspects. This calendar plays a significant role in various celebrations, such as Chinese New Year and traditional festivals. In my work Lunisolar Calendar, I chose to utilize the shapes of the Chinese characters for 日 and 月 in Oracle bone script as the content of the calendar, reconnecting the concept of light and the origins of writing.

As modern simplified Chinese has undergone changes in its form and adopted the Pinyin input method. To address this, I arranged Latin alphabets in the form of 日 and 月 in Oracle bone script using letterpress blocks. I repeatedly printed these characters on Chinese Xuan paper through movable type printing, incrementally increasing the number of prints from one to twenty-four. Through the repetitive act of printing, the text gradually loses its legibility, returning to an illegible state of the Oracle bone script.

Rather than being a conventional calendar, I modified it to be closed by binding both sides of the paper together. Each day, counting from the Chinese Lunar New Year in 2023, I tore off one sheet of paper at the exhibition site. This act of tearing off serves as a way to question and attempt to understand the meaning of 明 (light and to understand) from the origin of language.

Lunisolar Calendar, Documentation video of performance, 2023

Lunisolar Calendar, Installation View at MoA 23, Finnish Museum of Photography, Finland, 2023