"Figures" Kite by Michael Thompson

Chicago-based artist Michael Thompson creates unique kites crafted from split bamboo frames covered with stretched muslin and a collage of vintage Asian ephemera—including fragments of fabric, scrolls, drawings, and books collected during his travels. In “Figures,” Thompson plays with the pictorial quality of Chinese characters, obscuring and revealing hand-drawn calligraphy to dynamic visual effect. Language is imagined as pattern as pages of text are re-purposed as decoration, energizing the kite with the rhythmic movement of each brushstroke.

Thompson has earned an international reputation for his kite works, an engrossing project initiated by the artist more than a decade ago.