by Kit Hammonds
Published by TKG+, Taipei, Taiwan, 2016
Author: admin
Contemplating the Structure of the World in Swirls and Spirals
by Mami Kataoka
Published in We Came Whirling Out of Nothingness by TKG+, Taipei, Taiwan, 2015
Plane Tree Mantra
2014
Ink on plane tree
Dimensions variable
FIAC at Jardin des Plantes
National Museum of Natural History, Paris, France
Presented by Mor Charpentier
Photo courtesy of National Museum of Natural History, Paris, Bruno Jay, Frédéric Dubos, Marc Domage, Mor Charpentier, Takeshi Sugiura, and Olivia de Smedt
Video Link
As an in-situ intervention, Charwei Tsai inscribed the Heart Sutra, a Buddhist text, on the trunk of the iconic Oriental Plane Tree, which was planted in 1785 by the acclaimed botanist Buffon at the Jardin des Plantes. Heart Sutra is a text that the artist has learned by memory during her childhood in Taiwan, it is also a pillar of Buddhist wisdom, evoking the evanescence of all things. Tsai has written the characters in Chinese calligraphy on the trunk of tree. The public is invited to attend the writing process and to observe the gesture and calligraphy, which symbolizes the meeting between the memory of a person, a thousand year-old tradition, and a historical tree, more than two centuries old. (Text by National Museum of Natural History, Paris, France)
I Ask the River Tonight, ArtReview Asia
In collaboration with Tsering Tashi Gyalthang
Project for ArtReview Asia Autumn/Winter 2014
Spiral Incense Mantra
2014
Installation of ink on spiral incenses
150cm each
The Heart Sutra is inscribed on spiral incenses, commonly seen in traditional Buddhist temples in Asia. The incenses for this installation are custom-made by a family-owned incense factory, currently run by the third generation in Tainan, one of the oldest regions in the south of Taiwan. These scripted large spiral incenses are lit during the duration of the exhibition, and gradually transformed into smoke and ashes, manifesting the Buddhist concept of emptiness.
