2011.16: Post-Marijuana (Dama zhi hou), Written in Shadow Script and Black-on-Black Script

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2011.16

People

Fung Ming Chip (Feng Mingqiu) 馮明秋, Chinese (born 1951)

Title

Post-Marijuana (Dama zhi hou), Written in Shadow Script and Black-on-Black Script

Classification

Calligraphy

Work Type

album leaf

Date

2009

Places

Creation Place: East Asia, China, Hong Kong

Culture

Chinese

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/336548

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Album leaf; ink on paper; with one seal of the artist; written in Shadow Script and Black-on-Black Script

Dimensions

Calligraphy proper: H. 34.1 x W. 58.1 cm (13 7/16 x 22 7/8 in.)
Mounting: H. 50 x W. 70.1 cm (19 11/16 x 27 5/8 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• seal: This calligraphic work is not signed, but it includes a seal of the artist, which identifies it as a work of Fung Ming Chip. The single seal was carved by the artist himself. Its location can be described as follows:
  
  Slightly to the right of the center of the album leaf: Square, red, relief seal reading Si Bu Guan 四 不 館
  
  Note that the seal reading Si Bu Guan refers to the artist’s studio: the “Studio of the Four No’s”
• inscription: The inscribed text reads as follows:
  
  大麻之後
  
  麻後的幸福
  掙扎扭動
  張向空虛空間
  交錯狂亂
  上下舞成一片
  
  走著走著
  越出價值意義之外
  踏破禁錮時光的囚籠
  邁向夜的盡頭
  命的盡頭
  一踏足
  一轉身
  又自覺地沉淪到底
  靈魂超脫
  得成正果
  
  
  
  The 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
  

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

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.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Susan L. Beningson and Steve Arons in memory of Renée Beningson

Accession Year

2011

Object Number

2011.16

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description

This large, horizontally oriented, rectangular album leaf is divided visually into two parts, the right one-third, in which the characters appear a ghostly grayish white on a black ground, and the left two-thirds, in which the characters appear dark black on a black ground. The leaf is inscribed with a text of seventy eight characters arranged in twelve columns, the columns with varying numbers of characters and thus of uneven length. The calligraphy on this album leaf was inscribed by Fung Ming Chip (b. 1951; standard Mandarin transcription: Feng Mingqiu). Written with ghostly grayish white characters on a black ground, the right portion of the text comprises twenty five characters arranged in four columns and is written in "xingshu", or cursive script, in a manner that the artist characterizes as Shadow Script; written with dark black characters on a black ground, the left portion of the text comprises fifty three characters arranged in eight columns and also is written in "xingshu", but in a manner that the artist characterizes as Black-on-Black Script. The character count is as follows, counting columns from right to left, as the text reads:

Shadow Script portion:

Right column Six characters
Second column Six characters
Third column Seven characters
Fourth column Six characters

Black-on-Black portion:

Fifth column Six characters
Sixth column Six characters
Seventh column Seven characters
Eighth column Seven characters
Ninth column Eight characters
Tenth column Nine characters
Eleventh column Eight characters
Left column Two characters (in the lower left corner)

This calligraphic work is not dated; however, the artist stated to Robert D. Mowry that he created it in 2009. This calligraphic work is not signed, but it includes one seal of the artist, which identifies it as a work of Fung Ming Chip. The single seal was carved by the artist himself. Its location can be described as follows:

Slightly to the right of the center of the album leaf: Square, red, relief seal reading "Si Bu Guan"

Note that the seal reading "Si Bu Guan" refers to the artist’s studio: the “Studio of the Four No’s”


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

Verification Level