LANGUAGE

by John Chang

“My work holds deep personal resonance, with each element carrying a fragment of my story. Every time I revisit it, I discover something new—layers of meaning, emotion, and reflection unfolding with each encounter. In classical Chinese culture, calligraphy—known as Shu—is believed to possess a transformative power, capable of altering the natural order of things. Yet in public spaces, the same calligraphic language has often been weaponized to enforce ideological conformity. Towering, bold characters on walls once served as propaganda, filling the landscape with scripted rhetoric. However, in the hands of ordinary people, the same script was also a vessel of resilience, embodying personal and cultural identity. My work aims to confront this duality—both the distortion and the spiritual resonance of language.”