STYLE Edit: how has artist Xu Bing’s calligraphy brought Shanghai Tang’s ‘Created by Chinese’ vision to life?
The modern Chinese artist – known for his groundbreaking Square Word Calligraphy concept – teams up with the luxury fashion brand as it celebrates its 25th anniversary
Shanghai Tang, the luxury fashion house celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, has collaborated with world-renowned Chinese artist Xu Bing to create exclusive artwork showcasing its brand vision: “Created by Chinese”.
Bing was inspired by the concept to create artwork using distinctive calligraphy based on his original concept of “Square Word Calligraphy”.
If you look closely, you can see that what appear to be Chinese strokes are actually the English words rendered into compact character spaces.
If you are unfamiliar with the Chinese artist himself, you may recognise Square Word Calligraphy as the groundbreaking calligraphic concept that has inspired countless fonts and prints.
The Chongqing-born artist invented the code-like system – which transforms English to resemble Chinese characters – in 1994.
Coincidentally, this was the same year that Shanghai Tang was founded in Hong Kong by the late Hong Kong businessman, David Tang.
Bing, who spends his time between Beijing and New York, has exhibited his work in places including MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum.
In 1999, the artist was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of his “capacity to contribute importantly to society, particularly in printmaking and calligraphy”.