Traditional ink, tea pigment, graphite, and acrylic on mulberry paper. These paintings feature idiomatic phrases and colloquialisms in Toisan and Cantonese. Written Chinese has no alphabet, and reflects an enduring compromise between what are in reality disparate languages. The calligraphy of these pieces, though resembling Chinese, is actually written with an invented phonetic system based on Chinese characters. These pieces are built up in layers, until the individual words and phrases are unreadable. The amalgamated characters are embossed from the reverse side. There are no phrases or words to focus on specifically, as hundreds have been written and buried into the paintings. These paintings are part of series titled San Pai Ji. Named after the tablets found in household shrines which typically feature the names of ancestors, spirits, and phrases. My family’s story originates in Guangdong Province. Language comprehension did not transmit into my generation. As I began to learn what I could about our language and family history, a flood of stories were revealed that would have otherwise faded completely. This series’ title recalls those shrine tablets in recognition of a language that so specifically points to an epicenter of emigration, and the untold stories within it’s vernacular domain.
