Harvard Art Museums > 2011.18: Post-Marijuana (Dama zhi hou), Written in Shadow Script Calligraphy Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Post-Marijuana (Dama zhi hou), Written in Shadow Script (Fung Ming Chip (Feng Mingqiu) 馮明秋) , 2011.18,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Apr 25, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/336550. This object does not yet have a description. Identification and Creation Object Number 2011.18 People Fung Ming Chip (Feng Mingqiu) 馮明秋, Chinese (born 1951) Title Post-Marijuana (Dama zhi hou), Written in Shadow 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/336550 Physical Descriptions Medium Album leaf; ink on paper; with three seals of the artist; written in Shadow Script Dimensions Calligraphy proper: H. 45.6 x W. 64.9 cm (17 15/16 x 25 9/16 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 three seals of the artist, which identify it as a work of Fung Ming Chip. The three seals, which the artist himself carved, and their locations can be described as follows: Top: Square, red, relief seal reading Ming Chip (Ming Qiu) 明秋 (Artist’s given name) Center: Square, red, relief seal reading Xie Xin Qu Yi 寫心取義 (“Meaning from the heart”) Bottom: 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 2011.18 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 as much a play with splashed ink as it is a work of calligraphy. It features three large splashes of very black ink, one at the top center, one in the lower right corner, and one in the lower left corner that extends three-quarters of the way up the side of the leaf; a final, small splash appears in the upper left corner. Tiny splashes of ink and broad but faint brush strokes intersect the large splashes, linking them together and visually texturing the interstitial spaces. The calligrapher, Fung Ming Chip (b. 1951; standard Mandarin transcription: Feng Mingqiu), visually enlivened the paper in this manner as a background for the seventy-eight character text of “Post-Marijuana”, which he inscribed in "xingshu", or cursive script, in a manner that he characterizes as Shadow Script, a term he uses to describe characters written with dark watery ink on a black ground. The text is a challenge to read because the characters are very faint, they are widely dispersed, and they often overlap. The artist used pale, watery ink to write the text; the characters in the areas of paper left white are so pale that they are virtually invisible on first inspection, just as those in the ink-splashed areas are so pale that they virtually disappear into the dark splashes.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 three seals of the artist, which appear in a vertical column down the center of the composition and which identify it as a work of Fung Ming Chip. The three seals, which the artist himself carved, and their locations can be described as follows: Top: Square, red, relief seal reading "Ming Chip" (Ming Qiu) (Artist’s given name) Center: Square, red, relief seal reading "Xie Xin Qu Yi" (“Meaning from the heart”) Bottom: 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 This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
