Intersecting Notes on the Work of Fu Xiao Tong
The best of man [sic] is like water, Which benefits all things, and does not contend with them
The Daodejing
I
In front of us on a table-top are photographic representations of works by the artist Fu Xiao Tong. Most represent sheets of paper that have been pierced multiple times in such a way that the resulting interventions upon the paper’s surface give rise to depictions of mountain landscapes, flowing water (both subjects traditional to Chinese ink and brush painting) and abstracted natural forms. One of the works depicts the Jokhang Temple in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. A statement by Fu accompanying the reproductions of her work informs us that the material employed in their making is Xuanzhi—a handmade paper used traditionally in China as a support for painting and writing with ink and brush, whose main constituent is pulped elm tree bark sometimes supplemented by pulped rice, bamboo and mulberry—and that the paper was pierced by needles more usually employed by Chinese women in the production of textiles and needlepoint.
II
Xuanzhi, or Xuan paper, was first manufactured in China during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) in Jing County under the Xuan Prefecture (Xuanzhou), from where its name derives. Among the first documented references to Xuan paper are those included in the New Book of Tang (Xin Tang Shu), an official ten-volume history of the Tang Dynasty written during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). There are three grades of Xuan paper: shengxuan (literally ‘raw Xuan’), which has a relatively unrefined highly absorbent surface that blurs the edges of water-based paint or ink marks applied to it; shuxuan (literally ‘ripe Xuan’), which is processed using potassium... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline
578,700 Holes. Handpaper, 116 x 72cm. Courtesy the artist.
604,800 Holes, 2015. Handpaper, 100 x 76cm. Courtesy the artist.
