Echoes of One Hand Clapping: Picturing Sound in Asian Art
Sound cannot be seen, so how can it be pictured? Sound can be heard, felt as vibrations, and can move the spirit through music and memory. Such ways of experiencing allow the knowledge and presence of sound to be visualized in painting, calligraphy, poetry, and photography. Painters can depict actions or things that generate noise, such as a waterfall or a wartime explosion. Sometimes the very process of applying ink or color can be used to emulate sound, as in Li Huasheng's brooding grid, painted in a way that mimics a ritual chant. Calligraphy captures in brush and ink the sounds of languages, some almost forgotten. For example, Le Quoc Viet uses a barely remembered script to link Vietnam's past to its changing present. Married to painting and calligraphy, poetry can evoke or activate the echoes of sound, as in Wang Hong's Evening Bell from Mist-shrouded Temple and Shitao's Echo. The question of picturing sound also resonates in Minor White's photographic sequence The Sound of One Hand Clapping, derived from the artist pondering a Zen Buddhist riddle: "Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?"
Cary Y. Liu, Nancy and Peter Lee Curator of Asian Art
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Illustrated Reports on the State of Battle in the Russo-Japanese War (Nichiro senkyō gahō 日露戦況画報)Illustrated Reports on the State of Battle in the Russo-Japanese War (Nichiro senkyō gahō 日露戦況画報), 1904 [Meiji 37]
Meiji era, 1868–1912
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Mr. Onoguchi Tokuji Destroying the Gate at Jinzhoucheng (Onoguchi Tokuji-shi Kinshūjōmon o hasai suru no zu 小埜口德次氏破碎金州城門之圖)Mr. Onoguchi Tokuji Destroying the Gate at Jinzhoucheng (Onoguchi Tokuji-shi Kinshūjōmon o hasai suru no zu 小埜口德次氏破碎金州城門之圖), 1894 [Meiji 27]
Meiji era, 1868–1912
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The Sound of One Hand Clapping, Pultneyville, New YorkThe Sound of One Hand Clapping, Pultneyville, New York, October 10, 1957
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Windowsill Daydreaming, RochesterWindowsill Daydreaming, Rochester, July 17, 1958
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Empty Head, Frost on Window, 72 N. Union Street, RochesterEmpty Head, Frost on Window, 72 N. Union Street, Rochester, March 1962
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Galaxy, Frost on Window, 72 N. Union Street, RochesterGalaxy, Frost on Window, 72 N. Union Street, Rochester, January 12, 1959
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Burned Mirror, RochesterBurned Mirror, Rochester, June 25, 1959
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Dumb Face, Frost on Window (72 N. Union Street, Rochester)Dumb Face, Frost on Window (72 N. Union Street, Rochester), January 12, 1959
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Night Icicle, 72 N. Union Street, RochesterNight Icicle, 72 N. Union Street, Rochester, January 17, 1959
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Ritual Branch, Frost on Window, 72 N. Union Street, RochesterRitual Branch, Frost on Window, 72 N. Union Street, Rochester, December 8, 1958
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Batavia, New YorkBatavia, New York, January 11, 1958