Recently I've been exploring. Although the pandemic has taken a toll and changed the way to what we're accustomed to, it has also provided me moments of reflection and contemplation of what I hold. While browsing on social media, I learned about a mail art exchange opportunity called Enveloped, hosted by United Aunties (a local art community celebrating the works of artists, artisans, and people who work on their craft). Participants sign up and are given a role - "call" or "respond". If you are the "call" person, you would initiate the exchange by creating an artwork based on a loosely given theme: imagining new worlds or eras. When the "response" person receives it, they would respond to your artwork and also link it to the theme given. When my package arrived, I learned I was assigned to be a "call" person. Initially I thought of creating a comic, or some kind of collage poetry. But somehow my thoughts came to Chinese calligraphy 毛筆 - and I ended up rummaging for the brown envelope with the bulk of supplies I used as a child. It feels surreal, to pick up an activity from childhood. Memories bubble in every stroke, and bursts into dust at the lift of the brush. 意志 - will, is something we always carry. It never truly leaves, until we choose to. How to continue, to keep going even in precarious times? How to persist, how to live on? These are questions that continue to rouse from my mind. ------- Short passage on back of postcard: the beauty of Chinese characters is that they evolved from historical depictions of physical objects within a single character are constructions of mini radicals and symbols in relation to the meaning of the whole word itself in living within the present and eyes for the future, persistence of will - 意志 is needed 意 meaning > can only be well lit amongst the heart 心 when standing 立 atop the sun 日 志 aspiration > when heart 心 holds steadfast like the earth 土 for without will 意志, there is no way 方向 ------- Update: 2021/05/17 After this post, did I realize my mistake in the passage I wrote - 志 aspiration is made of 士 (spirit) not 土 (earth) 志 aspiration > when heart 心 runs on solid spirits 士 towards flight
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March 2023
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