Buddhist Calligraphy 經書

The Heart Sutra copied one character at a time, in gold ink on black paper, for temples, families and private collections.

All five series

Ground: after Hasegawa Tōhaku, Pine Trees, Tokyo National Museum.

Series IV · Buddhist Calligraphy 經書 No. 14 Heart Sutra 心經 Gold ink on black paper, handscroll Private collection

Read right to left

Heart Sutra. Gold ink in ruled columns on black paper, a handscroll with small gold Buddha figures at the column tops and the artist's red seals at the left end

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論

Statement

The time of recitation becomes the time of looking.

Each scroll is the Heart Sutra copied by hand, one character at a time, in the regular and cursive scripts of her training at the National Taiwan University of Arts. It reads from right to left and closes with her seals. The longest runs to more than nineteen metres.

Gold ink on black paper is the ground she is known for. The other grounds follow the commission, saffron paper with a Guanyin drawn in gold line, white paper, and paper flecked with gold. A scroll is written for a temple, for a family or for a single devotee, and the hours it took are counted in its columns.

One red runs through the whole of her work, the vermilion seal that marks the author and the authenticity of the sheet. Blessing calligraphy for Xingang Fengtian Temple is shown under Collaborations.

Series IV · Buddhist Calligraphy 經書 No. 16 Heart Sutra with Guanyin 心經 Ink and gold line on saffron paper, handscroll Private collection

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Heart Sutra with Guanyin. Black cursive calligraphy on saffron paper with a seated Guanyin drawn in gold line, red seals and small Buddha stamps, a long handscroll

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Heart Sutra handscroll in regular script on cream paper, with Guanyin and attendants painted in colour at the end — Series IV · Buddhist Calligraphy 經書 No. 14 Heart Sutra 心經 (detail) Gold ink on black paper, handscroll Private collection

Series IV · Buddhist Calligraphy 經書 No. 18 Heart Sutra 心經 Ink on paper, cursive, handscroll Private collection

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Heart Sutra in black cursive on saffron paper, with red seals and a line drawing of Guanyin at the centre

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經卷

Works

Sutra handscrolls.

No. 14Heart Sutra 心經 Gold ink on black paper, handscroll · Private collection
No. 15Heart Sutra 心經 Ink on paper, regular script, handscroll · Private collection
No. 16Heart Sutra with Guanyin 心經 Ink and gold line on saffron paper, handscroll · Private collection
No. 17Heart Sutra 心經 Ink on gold-flecked paper, handscroll · Private collection
No. 18Heart Sutra 心經 Ink on paper, cursive, handscroll · Private collection
No. 19Buddhist Calligraphy, 2020 Ink on rice paper · 14 × 134 cm · Private collection

作品全覽

The series in full

More handscrolls.

IMineral Painting膠彩2013 – present
IICalligraphy書法2013 – present
IIIHeroine女英雄2015
IVBuddhist Calligraphy經書2014 – present
VCommissions委託創作2013 – present

Sutra calligraphy is commissioned by temples, families and private devotees.

A commission starts with the dedication. The text is a sutra or a blessing; the name is a temple's, a family's, or that of someone remembered. The text sets the scale, from a single sheet to a handscroll, and the commissioner chooses the paper, the ink and whether there is gold. Timing is agreed on enquiry. Every scroll leaves the studio with a certificate of authenticity and a provenance record.

Enquire about a commission Guided viewings at the annual art fairs, by booking.