Hong Shu-ying

28 Jan

Jianpu and cipher notation as an alternative knowledge system
By Ian Tee

Hong Shu-ying, ‘迁泉 shifting springs’, 2023-, experimental prints and video installation, exhibition view in ‘A Reservoir of Time’ (2023), Objectifs, Singapore. Image courtesy of the artist.

Hong Shu-ying’s practice is a thoughtful engagement with the everyday as well as amateur creations. She draws from personal experiences growing up in amateur Chinese orchestras and the daily consumption of user-generated content on the internet. Her works reflect on these sources as knowledge systems and modes of dissemination, which are shaped by repetition and contradictions. In 2024, Shu-ying presented two solo exhibitions at Esplanade, Singapore, and Yao Alternative Space in Taichung, Taiwan. She was awarded the Kwek Leng Joo Prize of Excellence in Photography (2021) and was featured in the 6th Women in Film and Photography Showcase by Objectifs Centre for Photography and Film.

Hong Shu-ying, ‘彼觸 collecting cipher’, 2024, exhibition view at Yao Alternative Art Space, Taichung. Image courtesy of the artist.

Shu-ying is best known for her long-term exploration of hand-copied 简谱 , jiǎn pǔ, or cipher notations. The artist has a personal archive of hand-annotated music scores from her childhood years playing in different Chinese orchestras and ensembles. For her, jianpu is not merely a shared language of symbols and marks for communal music-making, but also an alternative knowledge system that carries traces of learning, adaptation, and innovation.

Shu-ying’s engagement with the subject is consolidated in her second solo exhibition ‘彼觸 collecting cipher’ (2024) at Yao Alternative Space, which features five series of works across different media and formats. The show unfolded across the different rooms like a musical composition. In ‘一筆一勾 in two strokes’ (2024), lines and arrows are appropriated from the score page and stuck onto walls and corners. They annotate and punctuate the exhibition space, directing attention to quirky architectural elements. Though abstract, these marks in space are intuitively “read” and interpreted by visitors. They form an accessible point of entry to closer examination of other artworks in the exhibition.

Hong Shu-ying’s artist book ‘笔迹 script/notes’ (2021-22), designed by Mingli Seet and published by THEBOOKSHOW. Photo by Marvin Tang.

Shu-ying offers in-depth study of jianpu through two artist books ‘笔迹 script/ notes’ (2021-22) and ‘尘惦 chéndiàn; after scans and lingering dust’ (2023-24). The former provides an index of different notations and what they communicate, while the latter pays homage to the process of photocopying scores as a means of sharing. Taken together, both works are exercises in slow looking and pattern recognition. Through the act of looking and re-looking, the artist lays out how various in-groups form their shared language through subtle shifts in line quality and shape. Just as individual musicians interpret the same score and perform it in their unique ways, Shu-ying makes a case that such expressivity can be found in the handwritten elements of these notations.

What ties Shu-ying’s interests in jianpu, amateur online content and everyday experiences is a space to value small gestures. For her, they are earnest expressions of curiosity, creativity, and dedication. She unpacks their formal qualities and their relationship with systems of circulation, reframing our understanding of these traces at the periphery.

Click here to read our dialogue with Hong Shu-ying, where she speaks about her past and current projects, including her solo show ‘彼觸 collecting cipher’ (2024), Part Time Book Club and ‘| | on paper’.