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A Ribbon of Dictionary
Wang Lei
王雷
Production date
2013
Object Detail
Media
knitted paper from the pages of a dictionary
Measurements
knitted paper ribbon 26 x 2000 cm
two volumes of the dictionary, each 27 x 19.5 x 9 cm
two volumes of the dictionary, each 27 x 19.5 x 9 cm
Notes
• A Ribbon of Dictionary is made from the pages of two Chinese-English Dictionaries twisted into threads and then knitted into a long, rolled ‘ribbon’, rendering the original pages unreadable. Paper was invented in China, so the use of this material connects Wang Lei to a significant aspect of Chinese history and culture. If we think of dictionaries as authoritative texts, documenting the correct usage of language, the act of knitting it into an indecipherable new form is an act of subversion: Wang Lei was thinking of how language has been used, misused and altered by the propaganda apparatus of the state and by the news media in an age of ‘alternative facts’. Wang chose the Chinese-English dictionary to ‘erase’ and knit in this way because Chinese and English are the languages spoken by the largest numbers of people worldwide.
Accession number
2014.001