Only when Chinese characters cease to be read do we truly begin to see them.
The Chinese writing system is widely regarded as the only writing system among the four ancient civilizations to have remained in continuous use to the present day. Hanzi Gong (The Palace of Chinese Characters) draws inspiration from the 1716 Kangxi Dictionary, approaching it not only as a linguistic source, but as a civilizational archive of Chinese writing. The project selects 18,046 characters and organizes them into 50 radicals. Through layered deconstruction—a process of “actual-character overload” (真字過載)—the work unfolds into 51 individual works.
Each work is composed of hundreds of linear, outlined character structures woven together into dense and intricate spatial formations. Here, Chinese characters are stripped of their communicative function, unsettling the assumption that writing exists primarily as a tool for human interpretation. Through a way of seeing in which absence reveals presence, the viewer shifts from spectator to observer, encountering characters not merely as readable signs, but as sensory presences that appear to reclaim a form of subjecthood.
At stake is the power to define meaning, visibility, and the authority of written systems. Chinese characters are reimagined as living entities, as if their external forms could generate a sense of fluctuation and emotional intensity, while their internal structures remain constant, sustaining a deeper civilizational order. No longer mere tools of signification, they become mirrors through which the human condition is perceived, probing the boundary between change and permanence.
As this vitality expands to its extreme and visual density reaches a critical threshold, established meanings begin to dissolve. Once precise instruments of communication, characters are transformed into geometric frameworks that resist interpretation, compelling us to release our rational attachment to meaning. Within the pure rhythm of lines, the viewer is invited to rediscover a sensory resonance that transcends language, returning to the roots of visual perception.
Hanzi Gong unfolds through five states — Sentience, Rhythm, Resonance, Pulse, and Flux — forming a system in which Chinese characters move between language, structure, sensation, and abstraction. Rather than tracing the historical evolution of Chinese characters, the work approaches radicals as generative forces animated by an inner vitality, organizing shifting relationships among form, perception, and meaning. Here, writing is no longer treated as a fixed vehicle of communication, but as a living system through which memory, knowledge, and ways of seeing are continuously reorganized.
The work’s structures, at times sparse and at times dense, do not point toward a linear order of evolution. Instead, they reveal the shifting vitality of the character system from within. The varying number of characters associated with different radicals generates uneven fluctuations in visual density, while the gathering, displacement, and layering of structures continually reconfigure the internal relationships between characters. Ultimately, Chinese characters form a perceptual field that is no longer dependent on reading, but shaped by the act of seeing itself.
Perception precedes meaning.
Artist Statement
Growing up surrounded by Chinese characters, I gradually became aware that their forms shape perception as much as they carry meaning. This led me to reconsider them not as fixed symbols to be read, but as visual presences capable of evoking atmosphere, movement, and sensation. For me, Chinese characters embody a unique contradiction: they sustain thousands of years of cultural continuity while remaining open to transformation through time, memory, and interpretation. Through this project, I seek to create spaces in which perception emerges before meaning is fixed. By unsettling the imperial taxonomy of the Kangxi Dictionary, I engage a longer history of attempts to regulate, standardize, and authorize Chinese writing. Rather than treating this order as fixed, I generate layered visual overload through actual characters, allowing inherited structures to overlap, reconfigure, and exceed their assigned functions. Within this shifting history, I approach these characters through an inherited instability rather than from a neutral distance. As legibility gives way, seeing becomes a quiet resistance against the noise of contemporary information systems, reclaiming perception as an open-ended human act.
Display Method
Hanzi Gong is conceived as a print-based spatial installation of 51 works. When presented in full, the works form an archival wall arranged according to radical stroke count, translating the Kangxi Dictionary’s internal classificatory logic into a spatial structure. Depending on the exhibition space, the work may also be presented through selected series or a site-responsive configuration.
