Post-Marijuana (Dama zhi hou), Written in Time Script

Artists

Description

This large, horizontally oriented, rectangular album leaf is inscribed with twenty columns of text, the columns with varying numbers of characters and thus of varying lengths. The text was inscribed on this album leaf by Fung Ming Chip (b. 1951; standard Mandarin transcription: Feng Mingqiu). The calligraphy on this album leaf is divided textually into two parts: the sixteen columns of characters beginning at the right edge and extending through most of the composition, which constitute the text, “Post-Marijuana”, and the four columns at the far left, which are written seamlessly with the text itself but which constitute the dated signature. The leaf is inscribed with a total of 100 characters, the text comprising seventy eight characters arranged in sixteen columns, and the dated signature comprising twenty two characters arranged in four columns—the last column (i.e., the column at the far left) includes just three characters ("shun shi zi") and is set apart from the others. Written with watery, medium gray ink on a white ground, the characters of the text are written in xingshu, or cursive script, in a manner that the artist characterizes as Time Script. The text is a challenge to read because the characters in each column typically overlap, just as the columns overlap. The boldly written signature comprises twenty two characters in four columns. The leaf is dated to 2009 by inscription; for the numbers in the date, the artist used the elaborate characters that typically are reserved for official documents and business records. This album leaf includes four seals of the artist, which run in something of a horizontal line across the center of the composition and which identify it as a work of Fung Ming Chip. The four seals, which the artist himself carved, and their locations can be described as follows: Far right: Square, red, intaglio seal reading "Ming" (first character of the artist’s given name) Second from right: Square, red, intaglio seal reading "Jian Zhi Ji Li"(“Seeing this brings good fortune”) Second from left: Rectangular, red, relief seal reading "Ming Chip" (Ming Qiu) (artist’s given name) (Note that this rectangular seal is carved to simulate two, separate, square, red, relief seals) Far left: Square, red, pictorial seal reading "Yun" (“Cloud”) The inscribed text can be translated as follows: Post-Marijuana The happiness that follows marijuana The twisting and turning Stretching into empty space Craziness and chaos intermingling Mixing good and evil Moving on and on Beyond the sense of value Breaking the shackles of the prisoner’s age of time Striding towards the edge of the night The furthest edge of life Treading, spinning Consciously sinking to the bottom Detached from the soul To become a saint The dated artist signature reads: Mingqiu shu yu Shenzhen Si Bu Guan Er ling ling jiu nian liu yue shi ba ri Shun shi zi The signature can be translated as: Ming Chip wrote [this] in [his] Si Bu Guan [i.e., Studio of the Four No’s] in Shenzhen [On] 18 June 2009 Time Script

Dimensions

Calligraphy proper: H. 17.3 x W. 64.1 cm (6 13/16 x 25 1/4 in.) Mounting: H. 50 x W. 70.1 cm (19 11/16 x 27 5/8 in.)

Provenance

Fung Ming Chip, Hong Kong (2009-2010), sold; to Susan L. Beningson, New York, 2010, gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2011. Footnotes: This work was created by Fung Ming Chip in Hong Kong in 2009.