English / 한국어
During the past few years, he has applied this system with the printing blocks he made for hand composition to create a monoprint version of Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist scripture containing 6,900 Chinese characters. Everyday he adds to the text in blue ink on an enormous scroll of rice paper, taking it as a daily meditative duty. According to Pan Qin, the project has nothing to do with design or art, nor even with any sense of beauty: it is mainly for his own spiritual practice, free from complicated social realities or restless desires.
Every now and then he will make mistakes and compose the wrong characters, but they are left without correction—mistakes are a part of life, too. In time, his skill will improve and his judgment will be further refined, inducing subtle changes in the letterforms. In the very long run—who knows—the system may evolve beyond recognition to an entirely new set of Chinese characters.
Installation view at Typojanchi 2013
