Let's start with a set of guessing riddles:
"One point and one horizontal length, two mouths to discuss (type a word)"
"Vertical and horizontal calculation is not enough (typing)"
"Voice of the Heart (Typing)"
The above mystery is "speech"
"A leaf boat three feet long (typing a word)
"Cantonese hidden language (typing a word)
"No more way (typing)"
The above mysteries are all "fans"
The two riddles together are "enigmas".
During the Lantern Festival just past, the famous artist Qiu Zhijie's new series of "Writing Plans" - "Enigma Confidence - Yongqingfang Shangyuan Lantern Festival" was presented daily in the "Yongqingfang" intangible cultural heritage district of Guangzhou. The exhibition uses traditional calligraphy art installations to dialogue with traditional Chinese festival culture at the most humanistic xiguan site, and will be on display for five days from February 12 to 16 in a flash mob.
"Enigma confidence - Yongqingfang Shangyuan Lantern Festival" is presented daily in the "Yongqingfang" intangible cultural heritage district of Guangzhou.
98% of the riddles on the exhibition are original. "Enigma brother" and "enigmatic sister" are puns that make people smile.
People who follow Chinese contemporary art are no strangers to Qiu Zhijie. On Labor Day in 2021, Qiu Zhijie sensationalized the whole network in the "Market Writing" of The Sanyuanli Vegetable Market in Beijing, and won the first place in the "National Top Ten Cultural Events" with the creativity of art into life. Based on the history, culture and festival folklore of old Guangzhou, this exhibition reinterprets the traditional Lantern Festival with the modern communication method of "dialogue" of young people. With his unique artistic creation method, the artist transforms the art of writing into a riddle installation, and rewrites the poems, songs and anagrams of lovers from ancient times to the present in a contemporary way. Fully respect the cultural traditions of Chinese festivals, and revitalize the locality of traditional festivals, the richness of cultural connotations, and the interest of calligraphy in cultural activities.
"Qiu Zhu Shangyuan Lantern Color Map" Guangzhou Edition?
Nandu reporter saw at the exhibition site that not only the main street of Yongqingfang, but also the trees on the shore of the nearby Xiguan Chung were also hung with riddle lanterns, and the shape of the lanterns was a dialog box, and it was very two-dimensional to take a photo in it. Nandu reporter also found that the content of the puzzle is not only related to Valentine's Day, but also the language style is more fashionable and lively. For example, "Lover sends flowers to Hide (play a drink)", "You also miss me (playing a chess language)", "Love notice (playing a military term)" and so on. However, the most eye-catching is the nine lion's head lanterns in the corner of the Yongqingfang Zhanyun Select Hotel, each with a red cloth strip writing on the puzzle underneath the lantern. According to Qiu Zhijie, these lion heads were personally made by the inheritors of the municipal intangible cultural heritage project Lion Head, and the mystery is nine historical figures related to Guangdong and famous all over the world.
The nine lion-headed lanterns were made by non-hereditary heirs. The mystery is nine historical figures related to Guangdong and famous all over the world, how many of them are you guessing correctly?
This exhibition is easily reminiscent of Qiu Zhijie's solo exhibition "Qiu Zhu Shangyuan Lantern Color Map" held in Beijing in 2018. Qiu Zhu Shangyuan Lantern Color Map is a large-scale comprehensive art project, starting from the Ming Dynasty municipal custom painting "Shangyuan Lantern Color Map", which includes a series of art forms such as writing, painting, installation and theater performance. "Shangyuan Lantern Color Map" depicts the street market during the Lantern Festival in Nanjing during the Ming Dynasty, and the various lanterns in the painting create a lively atmosphere during the Spring Festival. Will this "Enigmatic Confidence - Yongqingfang Shangyuan Lantern Festival" be the Guangzhou version of "Qiu Zhu Shangyuan Lantern Color Map"? In the face of the Nandu reporter's question, Qiu Zhijie smiled and answered, "In fact, this exhibition belongs to the 'Writing Series', and the difference between it and the previous "Qiu Zhu Shangyuan Lantern Color Map" is still quite large, but it just happens to be in the Lantern Festival. ”
The content of the mystery of this exhibition is not only related to Valentine's Day, but also the language style is more fashionable and lively.
Pear blossom grid, Xu Fei grid, swallowtail grid, 98% of the puzzle faces are original
Xu Fei Ge, Pear Blossom Grid, Swallowtail Grid, people familiar with ancient Chinese riddles know that there is a routine for solving puzzles, and this Ge Na Ge is the key to solving the set. For example, Xu Feige, named after the story of Xu Fei in the "Nanshi Volume XII Liechuan No. 2 Later Concubine". Because Concubine Xu often wears half makeup, the mystery is only used as a half-guess. The puzzle must be based on two or more words of the same side of the first word or group of words. "Mona Lisa's facial features (Xu Feige, play an adjective)", the mystery is "feminine (no eyebrows)".
Qiu Zhijie spent two weeks studying ancient Chinese riddles. There is a routine for solving puzzles, and this gnath is the key to solving the puzzle.
According to Qiu Zhijie, more than 800 riddles appear in the exhibition, 98% of which are original. "After the exhibition was finalized, I bought more than 20 books on ancient Chinese riddles online, ready to pick up riddles in them, flipping through them, and I found that many of them were available online, but we absolutely could not use them online, because now people will instinctively search for answers on the Internet, so the process of guessing puzzles becomes boring." So during the Chinese New Year, I retreated for two weeks to study riddles, and now I am learning to compile them. For example, pick some Guangdong brands, such as "Libai", the puzzle is "no bucket, why not tan". Another example is Guangzhou's specialty food "intestinal powder", "intestine" is the heart, "powder" is the fan, so the puzzle noodle is "the heart loves the idol".
Nandu reporters also found that not only is the position of each riddle lantern hanging exquisite, but even the font of the writing puzzle surface will be different according to different contents, including lishu, calligraphy or grass, and so on, which shows the artist's ingenuity. "But one thing, I wrote all the simplified characters in the Sanyuanli Vegetable Market in Beijing, but I found in Yongqingfang that many of the shop signs here are traditional characters, so this time I boldly wrote a lot of traditional characters, which is also a feature of Guangzhou." Also because considering that it will rain during the exhibition, the lantern is made of cloth, the use of color ding cloth, the traditional calligraphy ink will dissolve on this cloth, I can only use acrylic paint to write, although it is very difficult to write, but the limitation is the opportunity, after writing it out, it is also unique. Qiu Zhijie said.
The mystery of "loving idols in my heart" is Guangzhou's specialty food "intestine powder".
Face
Qiu Zhijie: Calligraphy has to permeate everyday space
Nandu: Most contemporary calligraphy art chooses to hold exhibitions in elegant places such as art galleries or museums, and now you are transforming calligraphy art into a lantern puzzle installation, so that the non-exhibition hall and noisy environment will affect the public's appreciation of calligraphy art?
Qiu Zhijie: Calligraphy must penetrate into the daily space, so that everyone knows that in many corners of daily life, art can be accessed anytime and anywhere, we do not want to go to calligraphy exhibitions, art museums to contact art, the beams, pillars, and even our fans in our homes, every corner is calligraphy. Many of the works in the history of calligraphy are actually correspondence. If they write calligraphy specifically, it is deliberate, and their goal is not to engage in art. My "writing plan" is to let everyone naturally feel the charm of writing in the process of paying attention to the content.
Among contemporary artists, Qiu Zhijie is one of the most using elements of traditional Chinese culture.
Nandu: After Beijing Sanyuanli Market and Guangzhou Yongqingfang, where will you choose your "writing plan" next?
Qiu Zhijie: My "writing plan" is to write as much as possible in the living space, and to avoid holding calligraphy exhibitions in the traditional sense. For example, if you write on your clothes, have you ever seen a scene of every family drying clothes at the door in a lane in Shanghai? I'm thinking about doing an exhibition in a Shanghai alley in that form, and it should be within this year. And then there's writing on stone. Maybe looking for a beach, or a quarry, I developed a waterproof paint, with this special paint to write on the stone, after drying the word will be "invisible", want to know what is written on each stone, you have to hold the kettle sprayed on the stone, the word "invisible" will appear in the water, the audience appreciates the calligraphy in this interactive process. This exhibition is also very interesting, and now it is still selecting places across the country, and one of the options is the quarry at the foot of Lushan Mountain, which is a spectacular quarry with thousands of walls.
Nandu: You have participated in the Guangzhou Triennial many times, can you talk about your views on contemporary art in Guangdong?
Qiu Zhijie: I think Guangzhou has two characteristics, one is that it is a place where various civilizations meet, such as the ancient Indian monk Dharma who spread Buddhism to China, which landed near Xilaizheng Street on Shangxiajiu Road in Guangzhou. There is also one of the first four mosques created after the introduction of Islam to China - Huaisheng Temple, it should be known that after the Southern Song Dynasty and before the Qing Dynasty, the Qin Tianjian was basically run by "Hui people". In modern times, Guangzhou has been closely linked to Hong Kong, so it has more opportunities to connect with the world. People living in Guangzhou also have a broad vision and are more tolerant. Secondly, Guangzhou's commercial development, more fireworks, both different from beijing's grand-sounding Confucian orthodox culture, but also different from the elegant culture of Jiangnan literati, this side of the culture is more tolerant of people's small faults, small desires, the helplessness and desire of people in the city are tolerant, about equal to what we call "grounded gas", which has also become an important feature of Guangdong contemporary art. On this trip to Guangzhou, when I was chatting with a few students who were teachers at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts about the theme of the next Guangzhou Triennial, some students suggested that it was better to set the theme as "business as a medium", which I thought was very interesting.
Nandu: Among contemporary artists, you can be called the one who uses the elements of traditional Chinese culture the most, can you please talk about your views on traditional Chinese culture?
Qiu Zhijie: I think that traditional Chinese culture is broad and profound, very complex but also very inclusive, especially good at absorbing foreign cultures, integrating seemingly contradictory and even opposing things into their own use, so it presents a very strong vitality, and if contemporary art finds inspiration and resources from it, there is a lot of room for play. In fact, traditional Chinese culture contains an inherent cosmopolitan and contemporary nature, and we always have the opportunity to reinterpret it in a new way.
Writing, photography: Nandu reporter Zhou Peiwen intern Chen Yue