From Ink to Apparel—A Crossover between Calligraphy Art and Fashion Design

Topic│From Ink to Apparel

Curator│Yang-Tze Tong   Space Designer│Kuo-Chang Liu, OU Studio

With inspiration as ink, manuscript as ink stone,

Sewing needle as brush, a compelling story written down

In this city, a crossover art form—the likes of never seen.

Yang-Tze Tong believes that a city has a responsibility to continually enhance its cultural and aesthetic standing and, to this end, hopes to use the art of calligraphy to realize life’s possibilities. For this exhibition, Tong has chosen 20 pieces from her “Silent Music” series. Working hand-in-hand with fashion designers, she imbues the exhibition with her calligraphy’s energy, rhythm and attitude. The result is that the calligraphic form becomes readily accessible—drawing in the public who come for a closer look in appreciation of the beauty and historical heritage of each stroke.

Through dialogue and interdisciplinary cooperation, every story has a chance to grow into something wonderful. This is in many ways similar to the potential of the ink in the ink stone, which awaits our brushes to spread outward, unconstrained and unceasing. Though the perspectives of a new generation comes a reinterpretation of the Chinese characters’ power of speech, as well as an invitation to feel and experience this unique interpretation and decoding process.

Concept Area

A consummate storyteller, architect Kuo-Chang Liu, uses ink stones, flying books, and ink pools as creative concepts, blends space and calligraphy to fill every corner with rich details and emotions. Here on display are the vigor, boldness, and artistic vision of Yang-Tze Tong’s calligraphy. The public is invited to walk among the pieces, to open up their senses and intimately experience the 20 works selected from the “Silent Music” series. Also found within this area are concept sketches from the exhibition’s six participating fashion designers. Amid the selected mediums and brushwork, visitors can listen in to the ongoing “discussion” between Tong and designers as they recount the stories behind each design.

Fashion Area

In this area, six renown Taiwanese designers: Shun-Min Wang, Yu-Ying Zhou, Shao-Yan Chen, Pei-Jie Chen, Yang Zhang, and Pu Zhan.—after absorbing the essence of Yang-Tze Tong’s work—have proceed to leverage their professional backgrounds and design styles to make four couture creations each. In every creation the unrestrained artistic interpretation of the designers is evident, with couture concepts becoming sets of fashion design to be worn on the body.

This exhibition area was especially tailored by Kuo-Chang Liu for each designer, and features the use of different mediums in the creation of a unique stage. Here, visitors will find a space that speaks to them, articulating the stories that lie behind each artist’s work. Amid those creations, visitors will naturally come to experience the aesthetic concepts being expressed.

Trending Area

Yang-Tze Tong has noticed that the youth of today like to wear T-shirts adorned with English words. Unreconciled with the fact that, despite the enduring beauty of calligraphy, young people have little contact with it, Tong hopes to find a medium through which calligraphy can find its place among the younger generation, and therefore bring a taste of culture and aesthetics to people everywhere. To this end, Tong has invited hip and trending cultural and creative brands from a variety of fields—clothing, accessories, and even daily sundries—to offer their personal interpretations on her calligraphy by introducing the calligraphic shape or form to their products.