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In an effort to promote excellence in calligraphy curation and creative practice, the Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts has established the Hengshan Calligraphy Art Center (HCAC) as a platform for launching open calls for curatorial proposals in the field of calligraphy. This initiative aims to foster innovative and contemporary perspectives within calligraphy exhibitions. For this year’s edition, the selected proposal in the artist(s) category is Spilled Words All Over the Floor: Chang Tien-Chien, submitted by Ease Art. The exhibition will be held in Gallery C of the HCAC.

Chang Tien-Chien, born in Taipei in 1984, is an artist whose practice spans calligraphy, ink painting, and seal engraving. His work is distinguished by its deconstruction of traditional brush and carving techniques through a contemporary lens. By extending the gestures of writing into the texture of daily life, Chang develops a calligraphic language that is contemplative, restrained, and closely attuned to lived experience. The exhibition title, Spilled Words All Over the Floor, evokes an act of regurgitating and regenerating words—a process that resonates with the artist’s long-term engagement with and reflection on calligraphic art.

The exhibition is structured around three thematic sections: Writing, Engraving, and Brush and Ink. Together, these sections explore the transformation of language into imagery and the transition from visual observation to poetic perception. Writing takes the written word as a point of departure, not only inscribing poetry and aphorisms, but also revealing the rhythms of time and perception through variations in brushwork and ink. Here, language is liberated from the confines of reading, becoming a visual cadence. Engraving centers on the art of seal carving, fragmenting textual expressions into symbolic thought. Through compositional arrangements and the layered marks of carving, these works convey a minimalist yet profound aesthetic. Brush and Ink responds to the traditional unity of painting and calligraphy, blending brushstrokes and ink tones into pictorial compositions, where colophons and inscriptions become integral visual elements. In this space, painting and calligraphy become reciprocal landscapes, jointly constructing a poetic atmosphere.

More than a calligraphy exhibition, this presentation is a deep meditation on writing, language, and form. Through a highly personal calligraphic idiom, Chang Tien-Chien reexamines how language is seen and understood, extending the expressive possibilities of calligraphy within a contemporary context. Every aspect of the exhibition—from text selection and brushwork to mounting and spatial design—is closely tied to the curatorial theme, showcasing the manifold ways in which calligraphy embodies both textual meaning and poetic imagination. Viewers are invited to rediscover the sensory and imaginative potentials of writing through the interplay of words and ink.

Artist: Chang Tien-Chien