White sculpture

2017

5 sculptures made with self-drying clay

A Chinese (Japanese) character 白 indicates “white” in English.

白 is a pictogram that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. There are several myths and theories explaining the origin of the object how its pictograph came to represent the meaning of white.

One of the theories goes with an acorn which has a white flesh inside and the flesh was used as a white color pigment. Another one goes with a skull which was much more familiar objects before human bodies started to be buried in a grave in an ancient China, or the other one goes with a nail of thumb that has a crescent-shaped whitish area. 白 also indicates “clear” as white can be a color of “clear”. This came from the myths that 白 was a moving and folded tongue of a person who speaks very clearly, or 白 was a flam of the burning candle which clears up space with its lightness.

However, no one is able to prove the truth of this ancient word 白.  These 5 sculptures are depicting the shape of white which had lost its original meaning.


Overview / White sculptures together with Drawing of white