Landscript, as the title suggests, is “pictures” that Xu Bing intentionally made with “script.”  This project started when the artist went to the Himalayas in Nepal in 1999 and sketched “scenes” with Chinese characters. China has long had a tradition that “calligraphy and painting have the same origins.” Xu Bing’s Landscript, landscape-in-script, transformed the visual images of landscapes to linguistic forms, inviting the viewer to reassess the particularity of Chinese culture hidden in landscape paintings and providing a unique way to “read a scene.”

1999

Medium: Ink on paper

Location: Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Finland


This project is a part of the Helsinki-Himalayan Exchange during which Xu Bing spent one month in the Himalayas. Drawing inspiration from the Nepalese landscape, the artist created a series of works that fused calligraphy and landscape art.