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Animal Words


Thousands of years ago, Chinese characters began as pictures that looked like the thing they described. Over time, they became simpler and more abstract and eventually evolving into the writing system we know today. Now, we rarely think of them as pictures anymore.



A dog doesn't look like 狗.. and a bird doesn't look like 鳥. Somewhere along the way, the words stopped looking like the things they named.

Animal Words imagines that journey in reverse. Each piece reshapes the strokes of a Chinese character into a portrait of the animal it names, so it's recognisable even if you can't read the language.

Language is built on abstraction. It lets us describe the world without having each word look like the thing itself. Animal Words ask what happens when words become pictures again, and whether a language can be understood even before it's read.

Elephant (象)


Dragon (龙)


Rabbit (兔)


Cat (猫)


Dog (狗)


Pig (猪)


Donkey (驴)


Tiger (虎)


Goat (羊)


Squid (鱿)


Chicken (鸡)


Octopus (章)


Shrimp (虾)


Fish (鱼)


Turtle (龟)


ARTWORK DETAILS

Calligraphy ink on archival paper.
Float-mounted and framed in teak.
One piece only. Available online here.


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