About
Drawing Script
Inspired by the beauty and structural complexity of Chinese writing, Donald Lee approaches the Chinese character not only as language, but as a way of constructing abstract form. He looks back at the long evolution of Chinese writing—from inscriptions on oracle bones, through the invention and transformation of different scripts, to the maturation of Regular Script during the Tang dynasty—and considers how, across this historical continuum, countless named and unnamed creators assembled lines into new forms, gradually building an immense and distinctive visual system.
Donald is particularly interested in a human capacity revealed by this history: the ability to combine simple lines into complex, distinctive, and recognizable abstract forms. He sees this capacity for constructing form as an innate human potential rather than a faculty belonging only to the ancient creators of writing. If human beings were once capable of creating such a rich vocabulary of visual forms, might our capacity to invent unfamiliar forms still remain within us?
Beginning with this question, Donald re-enters the act of “character-making,” but with an intention different from that of language. Through a process in which drawing, writing, and painting overlap, he creates a growing body of abstract characters that are neither derived from nor evolved from existing Chinese writing. Most carry no predetermined meaning, while some take on symbolic associations. Each form is distinct like a fingerprint, yet recognizable like a face. He calls this continuously evolving body of characters Drawing Script (繪篆).
Drawing Script is not a new language waiting to be deciphered. Rather, it is a creative practice that reactivates the capacity to construct form. Donald sees writing as drawing and practices drawing as writing, using his invented characters as the subjects, structures, and starting points of his paintings. Between word and image, writing and painting, he seeks to awaken a creative capacity that once gave rise to Chinese characters, but which no longer needs to serve language—allowing new non-representational forms to emerge in the present.
At the heart of this practice is a sustained attention to how things come into being: how something that did not previously exist gradually gathers, transforms, and becomes present through the encounter of line, form, and colour.
Line by line, he observes the becoming of drawing.
Character by character, he experiences the becoming of writing.
Colour by colour, he explores the becoming of painting.
From drawing into writing, and from writing back into painting, what Donald ultimately investigates is becoming itself.
受中國文字的美感與複雜結構啟發，李振漢不只把漢字視為語言，也把它看作一種建造抽象形態的方式。他回望中國文字漫長的形成過程——從甲骨刻辭，到不同書體的創造與演變，再至唐代楷書的成熟——並思考在這條歷史脈絡之中，無數有名與無名的創造者，如何以線條不斷組構出新的形態，逐步形成一套龐大而獨特的視覺系統。
李振漢尤其關注這段歷史所揭示的一種人類能力：將簡單的線條組合成複雜、獨特而可辨識的抽象形態。他視這種構形能力為人類與生俱來的潛能，而非只屬於古代文字創造者的才能。既然人曾經能夠創造出如此豐富的視覺形式，那種創造陌生形態的能力，是否仍然存在於我們之中？
從這個提問出發，李振漢以不同於語言的目的，重新投入「造字」這個行為。他透過繪畫、書寫與作畫相互交疊的過程，創造一系列並非源自、亦非演變自現有漢字的抽象字符。它們大多沒有既定語義，有時帶有象徵意味；每一個形態都如指紋般獨特，又如面孔般可以被辨認。他將這套持續生成的字符命名為 「繪篆」（Drawing Script）。
「繪篆」並不是一套等待被解讀的新語言，而是一種重新啟動構形能力的創作實踐。李振漢視書寫為繪畫，亦把繪畫實踐為書寫，並以自行創造的字符作為畫面的主體、結構與起點。在文字與圖像、書寫與繪畫之間，他嘗試喚醒一種曾經造就漢字、卻不必再服務於語言的創造能力，讓新的非具象形態得以在當下出現。
這項實踐的核心，是對「事物如何形成」的持續觀看：一件原本不存在的事物，如何透過線、形與色的相遇，逐步聚合、轉化，最終顯現。
一線一線，他觀看繪畫的生成。
一字一字，他經歷書寫的生成。
一色一色，他探索畫面的生成。
從繪畫到書寫，再從書寫進入繪畫，李振漢所探究的，最終是「生成」本身。