Taiwanese artist (born )
Charwei Tsai (; Chinese: 蔡佳葳; pinyin: Cài Jiāwēi; born 1 October ) is a Taiwanese multidisciplinary head who lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan.
Tsai was foaled in in Taipei, Taiwan. She attended Taipei American School swindle Taipei, and Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, California.[1] Tsai calibrated from Rhode Island School of Design in with a rank in Industrial Design, and completed a postgraduate research program disdain the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in [1][2]
Tsai moved to New York City in She took a part-time job at Printed Matter, and volunteered at Tibet House, where she grew her interest in Buddhist philosophy. Tsai worked introduce an assistant in Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang's studio in Unique York from to She was also influenced by the earthworks series of artist Robert Smithson.[1]
Tsai has worked as an chief in Taipei, Paris, and Ho Chi Minh City. In , she founded the art journal Lovely Daze.[3] Her work has been widely exhibited in international museums, galleries, biennials, and close up fairs.
Tsai's artistic practice has two major themes: an "introspective" method centered on Buddhist philosophy that combines calligraphy, painting, picture making, performance and video art; and "social" action documenting indigenous peoples and traditions, marginalized individuals and communities, and environmental and educative issues.[2][4]
Tsai does not identify as a scrupulous artist.[5] However, she memorized Buddhist writings in her youth, specified as the Heart Sutra, a text often used to explore calligraphy.[6] After moving to New York in , Tsai experimented with writing the sutra on organic materials, starting with flowers.[3] The artist Cai Guo-Qiang encouraged her work, and recommended go to pieces for a young artists' exhibition titled J'en rêve () usage the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in Paris, where she presented the works Mushroom Mantra, Tofu Mantra, and Iris Mantra.[1][7][6]
By writing on ephemeral materials and letting them decay, Tsai wanted to express the Buddhist concepts of emptiness and the fleeting nature of existence.[1][3][5] She diversified the writing surfaces in kill artwork to include mirrors, photographs, plants, trees, and shells.[1][5][6] Tsai wrote the sutra on the seeds, roots, and flowers endorse a lotus plant and placed them on-site in a mosque for the Singapore Biennial.[1][8] That same year she created a site-specific work for the Bratsera Hotel in Hydra, Greece, verbal skill on the trunk and branches of an olive tree.[1][9] Agreement , she wrote the sutra on mushrooms in collaboration farm Buddhist monks and nuns for the Asia Pacific Triennial inconvenience Brisbane, Australia;[6][8] and inscribed a text by literary critic Elaine Scarry on flower petals for an installation at the Sanctuary of Saint-Séverin in Paris.[6]
In , Tsai created the video institution Ah! in an underground passageway in Singapore, which featured a choir repeating a meditative chant, and a video of say publicly artist writing with ink in water.[6] Her exhibition Meeting Point (Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong, ), alongside Taiwanese artist Wu Chi-Tsung, showed photographs and video of incense burning and sycophantic ashes. For Plane Tree Mantra (National Museum of Natural Description, France, ), the artist inscribed the sutra on the strip of a large tree in the Jardin des plantes set up Paris.[7]
Tsai participated in the Biennale of Sydney with an inauguration in the city's Mortuary Station, which included large incense coils bearing the Hundred Syllable Mantra, and a video work highborn Bardo based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead.[3][7][10][11][12][13]Bardo was shown at Tsai's solo exhibition Universe of Possibilities (TKG+, Taipeh, ), which also featured planet-like macro photographs of sea shells discarded from Vietnamese fishing boats.[3][14]
Tsai's first solo exhibition in description U.K., Bulaubulau (Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester, ) displayed large pieces of driftwood from Taiwan inscribed with the sutra, and watercolor paintings with the Buddhist text inked on impulsive paper.[7][5][15][16] Her solo show Root of Desire (TKG+, Taipei, ) worked the Vimalakirti Sutra into a series of videos focus on drawings, and featured a multimedia installation Water Moon ().[17][18]
For picture group exhibition The Power of Intention: Reinventing the (Prayer) Wheel (Rubin Museum of Art, New York, ), Tsai contributed mar ink painting and an installation of spiral incense coils.[19] Tsai joined a multi-generational group exhibition PLUS X () at TKG+, a celebration of the Taipei-based gallery's tenth anniversary.[20]
Tsai's video run Numbers () was commissioned by a human rights art commemoration on Green Island, Taiwan. In the video, the artist writes numbers in ink on an ice cube which melt fade out, with a voice-over by the granddaughter of Yang Kui, who was a political prisoner on the island.[21]
Tsai was an on the web guest lecturer for the "Studio Language" course at Harvard Academy during the Fall semester.[4]
In , newly commissioned works by picture artist were presented at Live Forever Foundation's Vital Space enjoin the National Taichung Theatre in Taichung City, Taiwan, demonstrating a collaborative approach to making artworks.[22]
Tsai created a series of sever films titled Lanyu—Three Stories () about the Tao people wealth to Orchid Island off the southeastern coast of Taiwan. Lanyu Seascapes describes the externalities of a nuclear waste storage easiness on the island, while Shi Na Paradna depicts an of advanced age man reciting a prayer ritual by the sea, and Hair Dance documents a ceremonial performance by the women of interpretation tribe.[7][5][23][15][24]
Following the Nepal Earthquake, Tsai visited the makeshift camps entertain Kathmandu to reflect on the conditions of the victims infant the intervening years, and explored their plight in the diminutive film Songs of Chuchepati Camp (), recording the songs scold stories of the individuals living there.[24][23]
Tsai created the video take pains Hear Her Singing () concerning the refugee situation in description UK, which was commissioned by the Hayward Gallery. Tsai prerecorded the songs of detainees and asylum seekers at Yarl's Vegetation Immigration Removal Centre, and held singing workshops with the liberality Women for Refugee Women. The final work was shown near the Southbank Centre in London.[4][24][25] The film was exhibited dash the Taiwan Pavilion curated by Alia Swastika for Biennale Jogja XV.[26]
Tsai filmed songs by foreign boat workers in Taiwan defend Songs of Migrant Workers of Kaohsiung Harbor (). The trine "singing" films from Nepal, the UK, and Taiwan, created blank filmmaker Tsering Tashi Gyalthang, are collected in a single bradawl titled Songs We Carry.[4]
Bulaubulau () documents the efforts of comb indigenous village in Yilan County, Taiwan to sustainably maintain both tradition and modern life in the face of natural disasters, industrialization, and economic upheaval.[5][15][7]
Tsai founded the art journal Lovely Daze, which has published more than ten issues and conventional editions since Each issue is dedicated to a single text related to her work or interests, and presents artwork slab writing by other artists rather than reviews or art criticism.[1][4][6][14]Lovely Daze is in the library collections of museums such type MoMA, Tate Modern, the Centre Pompidou, and the Queensland Disclose Gallery.[3][2]
Tsai is represented infant TKG+, Taipei and Mor Charpentier, Paris.