A collection of unconventional hanging scrolls
The Hanging Scroll
A hanging scroll (kakejiku) is artwork pasted onto paper or silk attached to wooden rods, hung with a cord. A scroll is an ancient East Asian way of displaying, protecting, and storing art. Scrolls usually depict decorative watercolor images or black calligraphic marks. This exhibit explores ways of engaging with the latter,
Calligraphy scrolls can be read as text provide the viewer knows the language—but can also be seen as graphic art. The great variety of styles of writing characters sed in both Chinese and Japanese is sometimes difficult for even native speakers to decipher. Yet the visual interest of the calligraphy still arrests the eye.
How can non-readers approach and appreciate such scrolls?
Deciphering calligraphy for its meaning is hugely satisfying. At the same time, the surface pattern of the brushstrokes, the thing an innocent eye relates to, has interest and beauty on its own.
Post-WWII avant-garde Japanese artists sought to emphasize this in abstract calligraphic works where the powerful visual impact of the brushwork was in fact the point.
