lucasperez.org
Artist BioLucas Pérez is an artist and calligrapher who examines concepts around practice in his painting, video, and performance works.
2017 MFA Fine Art Thesis Walkthrough- Lucas Perez from Parsons Art, Media & Technology on Vimeo.
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Eight Years of Calligraphy Practice: Mastery on a table, 2016 Japanese ink on rice paper.
![](https://amt.parsons.edu/finearts/files/2017/03/Perez_2.jpg)
Throwing away eight years of calligraphy practice (video still), 2017
![](https://amt.parsons.edu/finearts/files/2017/03/Perez_3.jpg)
The Blankness of Mastery, 2017 oxidized silver leaf, DayGlo pigment and deer skin glue on hemp paper over panel.
In March of 2017, after seven years of testing, I became a Shihan, or Master-Teacher in the Shosenbu Calligraphy group of Nagoya, Japan. When I started studying calligraphy, I wondered how many practice sheets it would take to become master. Could I fit them all on a single table? I collected them for eight years and it turns out that I could; I could fit “mastery” on a table. Afterward, I felt the need to become blank: to disappear my earlier writings: to start over. In the video entitled: “Throwing away eight years of calligraphy” (2017) you see me putting these practice sheets down the trash shoot of my building.
I wanted to find a single “imperfect” mark that could express the blankness of mastery I had discovered by disposing of this past. I found the mark in a single horizontal calligraphic stroke written in a queer neon color. It’s the glyph for the unification of my practice, but it’s also a bold proclamation of an idealogical descent from the history of calligraphy.
The work consists of two parts: the video of me throwing away my practice sheets, displayed on an iPad; and “The blankness of mastery” mark in Day-Glo pigment and deerskin glue on an antique silver-leafed six-panel folding screen (c. 1950).