An Exhibition of Interpretive Calligraphy (expanded version).

Works on paper by Stefan Arteni

Brushpaths
The General Theological Seminary New York (November, 1999)

2012

I droop and drift, as though I belonged nowhere. Lao Tzu

Ink

Heidegger emphasizes the iconic potential of the written linguistic sign qua sign. Sign (signum, secare: to cut) is that trace-in-time/way-marking/brushpath that marks the open, structured with the paths of a showing. Ritual, reflecting a presemantic state of communication, is a characteristic of every mark (Derrida). Tao is way, waying, the art-less play of becoming one with the action. Play as structure, as self-presentation, is the mode of being of the work (Gadamer). Chance occurrence (Mallarme), which creates a horizon of forgetting/erasure and recollection/pentimenti becomes an object of affirmation (Deleuze) as it ruptures the process and sees to it that the work obeys laws of its own. The charakter (to mint, imprint, coin) remains sous rature as an inarticulate presence. Iterability constitutes its identity in all deformations of material incarnation.

Pure wind, bright moon..

Every day is a good day.

The old horse knows the road.

From the long flutes comes the autumn music.

Mists melt away, the sun rises, but no one is in sight.

Every day is a good day.

Every day is a good day.

The old horse knows the road.

Neither arise nor perish.