My painting research focuses on how to use the movements of the body to expand the scope of the calligraphic brushstroke onto a spatial dimension. Since East Asian calligraphy is founded on a deep connection between the brush and the body, such as press the brush, lift the tip of the brush, twist the brush, fast stroke, slow stroke and breath control, expanding this vocabulary onto a spatial dimension requires translating movements of the body to the brushstroke in space. Thus creating a long stroke in space would require the movement of walking and painting simultaneously along a long spatial support (see Study of a brushtroke on a long wall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-CjySHmkII). A calligraphic dot or circular form in space would require twisting the brush with body rotation movements.

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I am currently researching a different idea in painting called the scenic tableau or tableau scénique. It would operate in the reverse sense of Diderot’s “tableau vivant,” where the staging of a scene imitates a pictorial representation. The tableau scénique would have performative or scenographic elements, or both, it is thus a type of painting, where a pictorial narrative operates in the logic of a mise en scène of a performative action. The scenic space integrates the architectural space and scenic interventions using a post-Appian approach, allowing for freedom of movement of the calligraphic brushstroke in a three dimensional space, beyond the canvas frame.