Scattered Pearls
ongoing series since 2020
works on paper, often displayed in the form of installation
In classical Persian poetics, the distinction between نظم (nazm) and نثر (nathr)—verse and prose—is vividly expressed through the imagery of pearls. Literary glossaries and histories describe nazm as “stringing words like pearls on a necklace,” while nathr is understood as “scattering the pearls.” In this tradition, each couplet is imagined as a luminous bead, and together—once bound by meter and grammar—they form a harmonious whole.
Deeply influenced by Indian and Persian art and literature, Han Mengyun reimagines this poetic metaphor in works such as “A Broken Verse I” (from The Pavilion of Three Mirrors), a manuscript-like painting depicting a severed string of pearls. By contrast, “Scattered Pearls” (ongoing since 2021) draws on the concept of nathr, the “scattered pearls” of prose. In this series of works on paper, the dispersed pearls evoke an open, spatial mode of expression, entering into a discursive dialogue shaped by shifting associations.
Scattered Pearls: Woman
2023
acrylic on paper, artist designed stainless steel wall mount
Diptych, each: 28.5(H) x 19cm ;Overall: 28.5(H) x 38cm
Scattered Pearls: The World
2023
ink and white gold leaf on papar, artist designed stainless steel wall mount
Diptych, each: 28.5(H) x 19cm ;Overall: 28.5(H) x 38cm
Scattered Pearls: The Trace of Time
2023
Ink and gold leaf on paper, artist designed stainless steel wall mount
Diptych, each: 28.5(H) x 19cm ;Overall: 28.5(H) x 38cm
Scattered Pearls: Tasbih
2023
ink and mineral pigment on papar, artist designed stainless steel wall mount
Diptych, each: 28.5(H) x 19cm ;Overall: 28.5(H) x 38cm
Scattered Pearls: Wisdom
2023
ink and gold leaf on paper, artist designed stainless steel wall mount
Diptych, each: 28.5(H) x 19cm ;Overall: 28.5(H) x 38cm
Exhibition View, Han Mengyun, The Unending Rose, ShanghART Shanghai, 2023
Scattered Pearls: Ways of Nomenclature
2023
ink, mineral pigment and white gold leaf on paper
triptych, each 28.5x19cm
overall: 28.5x57cms
“Scattered Pearls: Ways of Nomenclature” (2023) focuses on the intangible nature of thought and the various forms of language.The Sanskrit word khapupa meaning “sky flower" in Chinese Buddhist sutras, denote things that do not exist. Three pearls represent the Buddhist ideals known as the “Three Jewels” (triratna), namely the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. The floral pattern from Tang Dynasty is a signifier that crystalizes the signified—nature— into a highly abstract symbol. By juxtaposing language, image and pattern, Han Mengyun reflects on the interrelationship between various ways of naming the world and its myriad things, as well as on the mechanism of meaning construction, in order to render things that do not exist in the mind, such as flowers in the sky.
Exhibition View, Han Mengyun, "The Shape of Silence", Painting Unsettled, UCCA EDGE, Shanghai, 2023
Finding Simorgh
2021
ink and gold leaf on paper, artist designed stainless steel bookstand
Diptych, each: 28.5(H) x 19cm ;Overall: 28.5(H) x 38cm
Her III
2023
acrylic on paper; ink and silver leaf on paper, artist designed stainless steel bookstand
Diptych, each: 28.5(H) x 19cm ;Overall: 28.5(H) x 38cm
Prison of Love
2021
ink and mineral pigment on paper, artist designed stainless steel bookstand
Diptych, each: 28.5(H) x 19cm ;Overall: 28.5(H) x 38cm
Sors!
2023
Ink and silver leaf on paper; artist designed stainless steel frame
19x28.5cm