Pinyin in/as art

close-up of the map of China, by Paula Scher, with the densely packed names of the cities and towns (often written in a filled-in-outline style) making up the bulk of the painting
Detail of the painting China (2006), by Paula Scher.

The map has a few misspellings; but that’s not what’s important here.

Paula Scher has made some other works that might especially appeal to those interested in scripts, especially her terrific Publikum Calendar for 2007. It’s the sort of thing I think Languagehat would have hanging on his wall. (This is a Flash site, so I can’t provide a better link. Click on “2007” near the bottom right of the screen, and then click on the names of individual months.)

image of 'DE' in Chinese ink on rice paper. Click for larger image.The artist Xu Zonghui (Xú Zōnghuī / 徐宗揮 / 徐宗挥) takes a different approach, starting from the Chinese tradition of ink on rice paper. A few of his works in a recent show in Spain use the Roman alphabet, one with Hanyu Pinyin’s “de.”

Here are a few others with the Roman alphabet:
Chinese-style ink-on-rice-paper image of the word 'TAO'Chinese-style ink-on-rice-paper image of the word 'TE'Chinese-style ink-on-rice-paper image of the word 'ZEN'

What, no “Ching” (Jing)?

sources and further reading/viewing:

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