This project aims at exploring the beauty of Chinese characters, how they can be complex yet so simple; by breaking them into pieces and using the fragments generated, I reinterpreted Piet Mondrian’s artworks produced during the De Stijl art movement, that went from 1917 to 1931.
The reason why I chose this particular artist and this particular period of time, is because I think there are many similarities between the principles of this movement and Chinese characters. The De Stijl movement “posited the fundamental principle of the geometry of the straight line, the square, and the rectangle, combined with a strong asymmetricality”; Chinese characters came a long way to be what they are now, very simple but, at the same time, very complex symbols. A lot of characters are made of geometrical shapes (squares, rectangles, circles) and lines; and although some have lots of shapes and are complicated to write, they still look very clean and minimal.
The final outcome of this project consists of a series of 14 posters / prints.