Writing With Light: White Calligraphy

WHITE CALLIGRAPHY, RE-READ (1967-2010) 12min. PERFORMANCE 1, WHITE CALLIGRAPHY (1967/2009, Toronto, 9min.) PERFORMANCE 2, WHITE CALLIGRAPHY (1967/2005, Tokyo, 8.5min.) In White Calligraphy, Re-Read, Takahiko Iimura returns to his early work. White Calligraphy which he originally made in 1967 by scratching characters from 'Kojiki', an early Japanese text, into the frames of 16mm black leader.In this re-reading of the illegible work the film is slowed down and briefly arrested at random using digital processing while suddenly legible words are voiced by the artist in an accompanying soundtrack. Part translation (not only between Japanese and English but between media languages) part abstract interplay of picture sound and word. This new work developed out of Iimura's performance practice that has over the years, beginning with works associated with Fluxus and moving into his notion of Video Semiology, radically explored the signifying systems of meaning in moving image making. It uses material taken from live performances in which the film is mobilised by unfixing the projector as the artist attempts to voice and trace the film in a live drawing/reading events reminiscent of Valie Export's Auf + Ab + An +Zu (1968). Yet Iimura's process of re-inscription and rereading goes further. Each new film shown here is not documentation as such but a record of its own making. Dr. Duncan White ( Central St. Martins School of Art and Design, University of Arts London.)