MY ASEMIC WRITING PROCESS

Author: samroxaschua
Date: 2022-12-13
Categories: Uncategorized

MY ASEMIC WRITING PROCESS – From a current exhibit at the Portland Chinatown Museum

Asemic is a type of open-form writing that has no intentional meaning or prescribed language. There have been many writers throughout the world and each one has their own technique. My approach to this open-form of writing is through poetry and somatic feeling (relating to the body, especially from the mind).

As a transracial/transcultural adopted person, I find that I cannot claim a “first tongue.” I grew up learning and speaking Hokkien, Mandarin, Tagalog, and English. Writing in asemic form gives me access to imagery only a meld of languages can. To me, it is the visual representation of the poetry I write.

When I’m writing a poem, sometimes I cannot carry its weight. Because of this, I dip my calligraphy brush into ink, place it onto paper, and think about the poem I am working on. I find this process invites my whole body to participate in the inquiry through the open movement of brush, wrist, and memory. Then somewhere between the repeated brushstrokes, an image appears that ends up in the lines of the poem. I then record myself out loud as a way to hear how the poem wants to be read.

All of the asemic pieces shared in this exhibit were created during and after site visits to John Day, The Dalles, and Astoria, Oregon. One of the main pieces in the exhibit, EVERYTHING IS MEMORY, is a two-part installation called Gold Lightning and Lullaby Scripts. I feel this installation is the heart of my experience with the Portland Chinatown Museum residency. Through this work I was able to gather, widen, and deepen my inquiry into finding a place in this community and be a part of Oregon’s history.

The scroll hanging from the ceiling was inspired by a dream where I saw gold lightning illuminate the Blue Mountains in eastern Oregon. In the dream, the lightning led me to a container filled with a metallic liquid broth. The gold ink script is accompanied by smaller scripts which are written using liquid ingredients my late mother Betty used in her cooking (soy sauce, rice wine, red vinegar, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and other spices). Her image is on the wall above you, painted by my fellow artist-in-residence, Alex Chiu.

The bottom part of the installation is a collection of asemic calligraphy inspired by works gathered from a live installation during the Public Archaeology Day at Kam Wah Chung in John Day. Further inspiration came from other works I created in the field. The ink used includes excavated charcoal from heritage sites, wood remnants and flue soot from the Wing Hong Hai Co. building in The Dalles, plant material from Chinese mining camps, and flowers from Astoria.

It is important to me that I present my calligraphy work as “broken” pieces rather than their completed form, so they may be seen as artifacts. Because of this, the scroll and books used in this installation will be torn into pieces at the end of the exhibit so they stay in conversation with the temporary nature of things. Everything will be returned to the earth after this show.

For a fuller personal experience, I invite you to scan the QR CODES with your mobile device to hear audio recordings of the poems and other sounds.