Introduction

Peggy Kwong-Gordon’s use of Chinese calligraphy honors ancient cultural tradition in China where the art of writing, closely allied to both painting and literature, has consistently occupied a preeminent place among the visual arts.

Chinese writing was established during the Shang Dynasty (15th-11th centuries B.C.E.) and reached its definitive form during the Eastern Han (1st-3rd centuries C.E.). Writing is present at every turn in modern China, marking both important passages, such as birth, marriage and death, as well as everyday life. The physical act of drawing or painting Chinese characters embraces modalities of space, time and movement. For Kwong-Gordon, the fluid and intuitive process of writing is akin to the movement of dance, to sensory experience, to feeling. For experienced practitioners of Chinese writing, as for Kwong-Gordon, a level of naturalness or harmony is achieved both by adherence to the strictures of calligraphy, and by freely letting go of these rules. This paradox echoes the ascetic discipline of monks.

The two primary works in this exhibition—consisting of hanging paper scrolls and body casts—are each inscribed with five chapters (1,6, 8, 10 and 11) of the 81 chapter Tao Te Ching, one of the classical, foundational texts of Chinese civilization. While the Tao Te Ching is attributed to the mythical sage Lao Tzu, scholars today believe that it was collected over many years from oral sources by about the third century B.C.E. The concept of the Tao, which is the central concept of the Tao Te Ching, comprises two sets of meanings: the Way of nature and the Way of life. The primary message of the text is that a meaningful life should be conducted according to the Way of nature. From the early period, Chinese thinkers and scholars have insisted that artistic expression embody or convey the Great Way (Tao).

The form of Chinese calligraphy is integral to textual meaning. Kwong- Gordon’s goal is to complement the spirit of the enigmatic Tao Te Ching by means of its calligraphic transcription. She attempts to mirror the philosophy of Taoism through the formation of written characters, through the material supports on which her calligraphy appears, and through the “architecture” of her installations.

Kwong-Gordon’s use of dematerialized, light pencil on translucent paper and her unique method of creating implied or negative shape in the characters that comprise her piece, Meditation on Five Chapters of the Tao (1998), parallels a key tenet of Taoism: the usefulness of nothingness or emptiness. A related passage of the Tao Te Ching states: “Clay is molded to form a vessel; there being nothing inside, the vessel is useful.” Moreover, in Chinese cosmology, the blank surface (a wall, silk or paper) has come to represent an undifferentiated oneness; the first and subsequent brush strokes introduced yield successively more complex yin and yang relationships. Kwong-Gordon’s painted, black ink Chinese characters, when collaged together in her installation, The Embodied Spirit (2002), reveal the gestalt of white space that is, in turn, created. Once perceived, this dynamic white or negative space may be thought of as an alternate illumination or consciousness of the text.

Peggy Kwong-Gordon, a resident of Hudson, OH, was born in Guangzhou, China and grew up in Hong Kong. A former member of the Kent State University studio art faculty, Kwong-Gordon has exhibited her work recently at the Firelands Association for Visual Arts (Oberlin, OH), at SPACES (Cleveland, OH), and at Sandusky Cultural Center (Sandusky, OH). Thanks for advice and assistance in the preparation of this exhibition, and for participation in the public program are extended to the artist, and to Professor Joseph Adler and Assistant Professor Sarah Blick.