Spatial Calligraphy: 12 Hanging Scrolls of Light

teamLab, 2008, Digital Installation, LED, 4 min 17 sec (loop), H: 2700 mm, Sound: Sound: Yuji Katsui (Electric Violin)

Spatial Calligraphy: 12 Hanging Scrolls of Light

teamLab, 2008, Digital Installation, LED, 4 min 17 sec (loop), H: 2700 mm, Sound: Sound: Yuji Katsui (Electric Violin)

This installation is a contemporary interpretation of traditional calligraphic writing abstracted in space. Twelve video scrolls show Japanese characters written three-dimensionally and reconstructed in the installation space. In the past, Japanese artists did not interpret space in terms of perspective; they approached depth in their own way, not only in painting but in real life.

In the gardens of France’s Palace of Versailles, trees of similar species and height are planted at regular intervals. A continuous sense of depth is created by the way in which identical trees systematically appear smaller as one looks to the horizon. Conversely, at the gardens at the Shugakuin Rikyu Imperial Villa in Japan, the scenery consists of a foreground, middleground, and background, and a sense of depth is achieved by layering.

In this work spatial calligraphy characters written on a number of panels or layers are brought together in the exhibition space. This work explores the relation between writing in space and the way writing can create space, collapsing the expectation of calligraphy as static on a page.