Collected Letters

Shanghai-based artist Liu Jianhua created Collected Letters for the Asian Art Museum, inspired by the museum’s collection of Chinese ceramics as well as the building’s original identity as San Francisco’s main public library. The artwork is composed of suspended, cascading porcelain forms — the letters of the Latin alphabet and the radicals that form Chinese characters. In this installation, these building blocks of language and communication never come together to become legible. Taken out of their utilitarian context in words or sentences, letters and radicals can be seen as sculptural compositions in their own right. In repurposing simple, familiar shapes, the creative possibilities of poetry, prose, and art are mixed together in a celebration of old and new. Look up to see the inscriptions on the upper lintels of the Loggia that first inspired the artist and have been read by visitors to this building since its opening in 1917.