Konokopia: Two Books

Of Scrolls, Books, Architecture and Space

Scrolls  and books have this in common with architecture: they are containers. They are containers that define space that holds objects. The difference between them is a single dimension. While architecture is volumetric and thus able to contain three-dimensional objects, scrolls and books can only contain two-dimensional marks. But all three offer a temporal experience. 

The book is a container constructed of strictly defined compartments. It is a fixed group of rooms; precise, static, closed. Each is a compact box, and each box can be reached from any other box. That is why the book is so spatially dense and efficient: it has no circulation space.  

In contrast to the book, the scroll is really only one room, or maybe not even a room but rather a long passage. The scroll is all circulation. It is a long corridor. Ironically,  ironically because it is such an old format,  the scroll offers a spatial continuity that is quite modern, even organic. It offers uninterrupted movement through space, a freedom to roam.

The book and the scroll complement each other. It is strange that the scroll has been essentially abandoned as a format. It offers spatial qualities that are not like that of the book. The book is a heterogeneous space, made up of numerous little independent parts. The scroll is a homogeneous space; single, unified, whole.

Qingming Shang He Tu and the Essence of the Scroll

As I am sitting and gently caressing a roll of toilet paper in my hands, I’m thinking about scrolls and about the Qingming Shang He Tu. Qingming Shang He Tu is a Chinese scroll painted by Zhang Zeduan sometime in the twelfth century. The scroll is 25 cm wide and 529 cm long. The painting depicts the daily life around the city of Bianjing (modern day Kaifeng).

Wanting to make the scroll format one of Konokopia’s signature project type, I’ve been searching for any publications of scrolls that I can find as examples. Qingming Shang He Tu, Scenes along the River during the Qingming Festival published by Better Link Press is the best so far. The Zhang Zeduan’s painting is printed on one side of 26 sheets that are connected together with glue by a small overlap. The pages are folded like a harmonica and the end page is glued to the hardback cover. This method of construction allows the viewer to see the complete painting when it is fully unfolded or to see it in parts by turning the pages.

But what this construction does not allow the viewer to do is to experience the scroll the way it is meant to be experienced. The harmonica form does not allow you to fluidly unroll the scroll and see the evolving artwork flow forth like a stream. And the experience of a scroll depends on this animated flow. It is this flowing forth of the image that gives the scroll format its singular quality. It offers movement that is a little like film. The process of unrolling creates this movement. It creates inanimate animation. 

So as I gently unroll the toilet paper, I think how wonderful it would be to experience the Qingming Shang He Tu the way it was meant to be experienced: as a scroll.