Luo Songsong

    songsongluo@126.com

    XU BING, a distinguished Chinese artist, once published a book entitled “Book From the Ground: From Point to Point,” written with icons and symbols from different categories, implying the possibilities of future reading styles.

    As if to prove Xu’s theory, Tokyo Type Directors Club (TDC) is exhibiting 165 design works in OCT Art & Design Gallery, with works created by about 100 artists from different countries. The works displayed at this exhibition are the award-winning submissions from TDC 2013, as well as a selection of noteworthy entries from the competition.

    A short film called “Now Is Better,” shot by Stefan Sagmeister and Jessica Walsh from the United States, won the Grand Prix Award in TDC 2013. Accompanied by gentle music, visuals of coffee beans, eggs, red wine, weeds and others all mutate to generate the words “NOW IS BETTER.”

    “I’d much rather live now than in other time in history. This is the first time that large parts of the world population can be in charge of their own destiny,” Sagmeister said. “Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker shows that crime has actually decreased in every single century over the last 2,000 years, including the 20th century that featured both world wars and the Holocaust. We made this little typographic film for our exhibition ‘The Happy Show’ at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.”

    Another artist, Stanley Wong from Hong Kong, approached the relationship between existence and emptiness in Buddhist philosophy. The piece, featuring calligraphy of the Chinese character for “emptiness” (空) disappearing stroke by stroke from a piece of paper, won a TDC Prize.

    He said he was impressed to see people practice calligraphy using water instead of ink on the stone pavement in a Guangzhou park years ago. “The practice catches the essential relationship between existence and indefinite emptiness. Everything comes into being for a reason, and then disappears for a reason, although people may not understand the power behind all the happenings,” said Wong.

    Created by Felix Pfaffli from Switzerland, the poster “There Must Be Some Kind of Way Out of Here” is designed for a stage play that deals with the impossibility to escape from oneself, one’s identity and thoughts.

    “Just as actors in a play, the design tries to escape the poster format while the title of the play repeats itself, as in thought, in an endless flight of stairs over and over again. It’s obvious: There is no escape,” said Felix.

    Founded in 1987, TDC is a global design brand.

    Dates: Until March 11

    Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Closed Mondays

    Venue: OCT Art & Design Gallery, 9009 Shennan Boulevard, Nanshan District (南山区深南大道9009号华侨城华·美术馆)

    Metro: Luobao Line, OCT Station (华侨城站), Exit C