Ma Defan

Ma Defan graduated from the School of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University (formerly the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts). She is a fine artist, costume designer and artist of China Film Group. Currently, she works and lives in Beijing.

She believed that "Art is Dialogue." She crosses various fields from film costume design to calligraphy creation, awakens the interlocutor's appearance through creation, sends communication requests on mountains, water, and climate, and connects nature, everything, inner, and emotions with art. In recent years, the focus of her art has shifted to the field of modern calligraphy and installation, with brush and ink as the core, showing a broader contemporary perspective. In response, renowned curator Fei Dawei said, "She tried to present the most three-dimensional and direct expression of the exploration and realization of nature, life, and art in her work to guide the audience to appreciate the endless and subtle world in its solemnity." 

With the nourishment of traditional calligraphy, she gradually tries to form artistic characteristics such as “hieroglyphic book (象形書)” and “zuosȟu book (左手書)” and connect with nature with the help of writing. Unlike the traditional Chinese ink-and-wash art 'Nature of Teacher', her contemporary book aimed at “Nature of Dialogue”. In the “The Twenty-Four Solar Terms” series, she enters the natural environment every season and combines the environment and mind of the place to write on huge fiber materials that are closely related to time and space. Along with this, the entire process of "Site-Specific Art" is captured in photos and videos.

In the context of the development of contemporary art, her creation took place on two different levels. First, she kept pace with the evolution of contemporary ink painting in writing. It is thanks to her artistic attitude to pursue free expression, free from bondage, and learning traditional calligraphy from an early age. Second, it is very similar to 'local art' in terms of the form of writing. This art form, which takes place at a specific place and time after American sculptor Robert Morris presented the concept of 'site-specificity' in 1966, has been highly valued in environmental devices and live performances with an emphasis on realism, contingency, and performance, influencing the creation of many contemporary artists over the years.

Arriving from classic to contemporary era, she organically combined modern ink and local art. In his series Twenty-Four Solar Terminology and Watching the Mountain, Chinese characters are stumped horizontally, energetic and unruly, and their likenesses are full of explosive power emanating from deep within their hearts. These articles contain secret conversations for inner enlightenment with cheerful expressions that directly reveal the inner feelings of the heart. Especially in a noisy and cluttered modern society, her work, which naturally retires from life due to the absence of her inner interlocutors, makes her face the naturalness like towering mountains.