Exhibition view from Elemental Light, TKG , Taipei, 2011
Black ink on feathers and a circular mirror 2 meters
The installation is composed of a pile of scripted white feathers resting on a circular mirror. The texts on the feathers are phrases from Sufi poetry that read not only as romantic songs to a lover, but also symbolically celebrates the relationship between God and human. Reflection on the ceiling from the mirror mimics the axis between Heaven and Earth found in Islamic architecture while the feathers serve as messengers of transcendence.
The concept is inspired by an interest in Sufi music and poetry that leads to the experience of non-duality, a sense of unity, which uplifts our spirit beyond perceived knowledge and experience.
Scripted phrases from Sufi poetry on the feathers:
Like the rose, with my whole body I smile and not with my mouth alone; Because I am, I without I, with the king of the world, alone.
During the night I embrace Your image. At dawn the fragrance of flowers rises from my bed.
At the moment we saw your sun, we left all particles of dust behind us On account of that Essence we left all attributes behind us.
My soul and my heart have been captivated by the beauty of the name of God. My thirsty lips have been comforted by the pure water of the name of God.
All through eternity Beauty unveils His exquisite form in the solitude of nothingness; He holds a mirror to His face and beholds His own beauty.
He is the knower and the known, the seer and the seen; No eye but His own has ever looked upon this Universe.
Whenever Beauty looks, Love is also there; Wherever beauty shows a rosy cheek,
Love lights Her fire from that flame.
We are as the flute, and the music in us is from Thee; We are as the mountain and the echo in us is from Thee.
Gone IGone IIGone IIIGone IV (Details)Gone VGone VIGone VII
The photographs of the series Gone, all unique prints, capture the phenomenon of the dissemination of light when the camera malfunctions. Taken in Brisbane, Australia, with a camera with a broken lens, the photographs show an accidental beauty that results when relieved from the need to control perception. Charwei Tsai inscribed a mantra, found at the end of the Heart Sutra, a text that has become a motif in the artist’s work, onto the diffusion of light. This mantra is often recited orally, almost like a spell, or presented visually in mandalas as an aid to move forward, to be freed from attachments.
A solo exhibition by Charwei Tsai TKG+, Taipei, Taiwan 13 August ~ 11 September 2011
Exhibition PosterExhibition Introduction, and Frog Mantra, 2005Lovely Daze and catalogsAh!, 2011Earth Mantra and Sea Mantra, 2009Exhibition viewExhibition viewGone V and Gone IV, 2011Driftwood, 2011Sky Mantra, Earth Mantra, Sea Mantra, 2009Gone VII and Gone VI, 2011Exhibition viewA Dedication to Saint Ursula and Baptism, 2009A Dedication to Saint Ursula, 2009A Dedication to Saint Ursula, 2009A Dedication to Saint Ursula, 2009Feather Project, 2011Feather Project (Details), 2011
Press Release: TKG+ is pleased to announce Charwei Tsai’s first solo exhibition in Taiwan, Elemental Light, which will be on view at our Neihu venue from August 13 to September 11, 2011. From Tsai’s earliest works embracing her personal connection to Buddhism, to her recent pieces, which draw inspiration from other religions, the photographs, videos, and multi-media installations of Elemental Light contemplate the religious concept of primordial light, a source of basic human goodness.
The exhibition opens with one of Tsai’s earliest pieces, Frog Mantra (2005), a photograph on which she delicately wrote the Heart Sutra – a seminal Buddhist text and recurring motif through which she has explored transience. Similar themes, under new inspirations, appear in the photographs of the series Gone (2011), on view for the first time. Here, in Sanskrit, the Heart Sutra can be found within the diffusion of light of the photographs, taken with a camera with a broken lens.
In her new works Tsai continues to place keen attention on spiritual texts, their application to organic and inorganic materials, and the meaning behind and produced by the process of inscribing such materials herself. Text and metaphors of transcendence are also at play in the video and sound installation Ah! (2011), where visitors approaching the image of the dissolving ink letters are surrounded by voices repeating “ah,” a sacred sound in many religions. This piece transforms sound into a visual and audio vibration that highlights the environment and spirituality.
Curated by Akiko Miki, Eriko, Osaka, Taro Amano 6 August ~ 6November 2011
Exhibited works: – Baptism, 2009, Video, 2min, Collection of Yokohama Museum of Art – Circle I, 2009, Video, 2min, Collection of Yokohama Museum of Art – Sky Mantra, 2009, Video
Circle II, 2011, Exhibition viewCircle II, 2011, Exhibition view
Press Release: Here at the beginning of the 21st century, I get the feeling that advances in scientific and information technology, such as the internet, have made the world more knowable than it has ever been in the past. And yet even in our immediate surroundings there remain countless enigmas – mysteries that remain inexplicable by science or reason. At the same time, many of the things we have long taken for granted, such as the concepts of time and space, are being transformed by those same technological developments.
In this, the fourth edition of the Yokohama Triennale, which will be titled “OUR MAGIC HOUR – How Much of the World Can We Know?” I intend to focus on works of art that refer to the mysteries of the world and our everyday lives – such things as magic-like powers, supernatural phenomena, mythology, legend and animism.
I did not choose to focus on these issues out of a desire to question the limits of science, elevate mysticism, or pursue art as a form of entertainment. I pose these questions so that we can turn our eyes to those areas that cannot be figured out by science or reason – areas that have been marginalized; values that we once respected but have forgotten; relationships between nature and humankind that need to be reconsidered, and so on. By investigating these questions, we can get an idea of more flexible, open relationships with the world and alternative views on history and events.
Yokohama Triennale 2011 will take place both outdoors and indoors at two main venues, the Yokohama Museum of Art and Bank ART Studio NYK. It will include artworks by just over 60 contemporary artists and also some from the museum’s collection. From site-specific installations and media work to modern painting and
historical objects such as Coptic tapestry fragments, the exhibition will include a wide range of artworks in terms of both age and material.
One of the distinctive features of this triennale will be that there will be unexpected “encounters” at various corners of the exhibition space. The Triennale will not only include works that involve the participation of viewers, but it will present works with such diverse themes, ages, generations, cultural backgrounds and genres that unlikely dialogues and relations will spring up between them, allowing viewers new interpretations and creative inspiration. A voyage of art appreciation that is entirely unrestricted by existing categories and preconceived ideas will be possible. In addition, because the Yokohama Museum of Art is now one of the main venues, some of the artists work in collaboration with works in the museum’s collection. Thus the museum itself will be presented in an entirely new light.
“By learning to accept mysteries and contradictions, by learning to change our perspectives, we might find that suddenly, like magic, the world is open and accessible to us.” With this message in mind, Yokohama Triennale 2011 approaches the present age of uncertainty and confusion as an attempt to rethink human existence and our surroundings with the pure curiosity, flexibility and imagination of a child, and without the limiting influence of existing structures and ideas.
Black ink on lithographs 26x31cm Printed by Idem, Paris
Lyrics of love songs that I grew up listening to in Taiwan on love and loneliness are written on lithographs of bonsais, which are trees that are manipulated and dwarfed for a sense of beauty.
Bonsai Series IIIBonsai Series III (Details)Bonsai Series VBonsai Series IXBonsai Series VIBonsai Series VI (Details)Bonsai Series VII (Details)Bonsai Series IX (Details)Bonsai Series IX (Details)
Special thanks to Patrice Forest, Mathilde Roussel, Idem staff, David Rosenberg, and Atelier Phuong.
