Assignment No. 1: Copying the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion One Thousand Times

Overview

Qiu Zhijie spent five years copying Wang Xizhi’s (303–361) Lantingxu (‘Preface to the Orchid Pavilion’) one thousand times. The video shows the artist writing calligraphy with an ink brush. As the black ink fills the paper, the strokes lose their distinctiveness, and the text becomes illegible. Eventually, only a black rectangular field remains.