From a Dust Particle to the Universe

From a Dust Particle to the Universe – Installation with cinnabar natural pigments & ink

From a Dust Particle to the Universe, 2021
Installation with cinnabar natural pigments & ink
700 x 600cm
National Taichung Theatre’s Art Corner
Commissioned by Live Forever Foundation, Taichung, Taiwan

From a Dust Particle to the Universe, Tsai’s largest drawing to date, is a site-specific production for the National Taichung Theatre’s Art Corner. Over a five month period of durational performance, the artist paints a large circle form with cinnabar, a red pigment that is extracted from minerals that are traditionally used medicinally for calming the spirit.

Starting from the center of the circle in a spiral direction, Tsai writes the Samantabhadra Aspiration Prayers 普賢行願品 from the well-known Flower Ornament Sutra 華嚴經 like flower petals large and small covering the entire surface. The characters of ten particular aspirational phrases are burnt with thin incense sticks, allowing light to pierce through each character. The large drawing is then hung on the window panels of the opera house. This work is dedicated to all the lives lost during the pandemic years.

Five Sky Dancers

Five Sky Dancers Series, 2021 - Drawings with natural pigment extracts

Five Sky Dancers Series, 2021
Drawings with natural pigment extracts from cinnabar, azurite, malachite, orpiment, and amphibole & ink on rice paper
180x180cm
Collection of Live Forever Foundation, Taiwan

This is a series of drawings made in homage to the five wisdom dakinis, which literally means sky dancers and represent the feminine energy in the tantric tradition. “It is a raw, naked cognizance, like a baby: unaltered, uncontrived, un-fabricated, and uneducated,” as described by a tantric master. Each dakini belongs to a realm with a symbolic direction, color, skandha, element, emotion, and a principal deity. For example, the west realm is represented by the color red, the element of fire, the skandha of scent, the emotion of desire and the principal deity of Amitabha.

The dakini in this realm is Pandara who is the metaphor for the antidote to desire that is the wisdom of observation and her mantra is written on the red-colored drawing. In this series, Tsai also experiments with using natural pigments extracted from minerals such as amphibole, azurite, cinnabar, orpiment, and malachite that are used in Buddhist caves of Dunhuang where the tantric tradition had spread. 

Published
Categorized as Drawing

Ndewa & Hamanangu Series

Ndewa & Hamanangu Series, 2021 - Ikat textile woven with hand-spun cotton yarn, hand made

Ndewa & Hamanangu Series, 2021
In collaboration with Alia Swastika and Nency Dwi Ratna
Ikat textile woven with hand-spun cotton yarn, hand made,
sourced plant-based dye from indigo, morinda, and turmeric from Sumba
124x265cm each piece

Ndewa & Hamanangu, is a series of ikat textiles made in collaboration with a young weaver Nency Dwi Ratna from the island of Sumba in Indonesia through the support of curator Alia Swastika. For this ten-month project, the weaver closely followed traditional methods passed down through her mother. As a tribute to the tradition, hand-spun yarn from locally sourced cotton and plant based-dye from hand-picked native plants such as indigo, turmeric, and morinda took the form of a local totem ‘lobster’ that symbolizes re-generation.

Every step of the preparation follows the natural rhythms of the land. What seems to be mundane labor manifests into sacred geometries representing the interdependence of micro and macro cosmologies. This is part of a series of project where Tsai works with craftswomen in rural regions to preserve their knowledge and skills of working with plant-based and locally sourced materials that are otherwise quickly dying out. 

Kalachakra

Kalachakra, 2021  - A pair of hand-crafted and embroidered felt from Mongolia 

In collaboration with Khorolsuren Dagvajantsan & Tsaschikher Tsagaankhuu
A pair of hand-crafted and embroidered felt from Mongolia
180cm in diameter each
Commissioned by Live Forever Foundation, Taichung, Taiwan

“We Mongolians have been nomads with a long-standing nomadic culture throughout history. But today, with the rapid development of science and technology, people are shifting to a sedentary lifestyle. We started these sewn rugs five years ago because we noticed the process of our traditions being forgotten day by day.

I first learned the main technique for making traditional felt rugs through sewing and stitching them together from my mother. My mother was a Mongolian shoemaker for twenty years. Since I was a child, she introduced me to traditional lifestyles, nomadic handcrafts and taught me how to do things with quality.

We make felt from Mongolian sheep’s wool, which is the main raw material for rugs. Wool is first soaked in water and made through traditional techniques. Many elements of Mongolian ornaments, rams, mythology and symbolism are depicted on the felt rugs.

In the process of sewing, I hope to be absorbed by the seeds of my mind, intellect and soul. The whole process of creation is full of ease and I always feel the warm positive energy.

For the first time in this work, the “Kalachakra Mandala” or “Wheel of Time” was depicted. Because I had heard and seen Kalachakra as a Buddhist philosophy as a symbol of the new circular age or era, I meditated on “time” during the creation, and felt the vortex of life, including the circular shape of the “sun.” That’s why I want to compare it to the great Mongolian long song “Uyahan zambuutiviin naran” (“Under the Sun of Placid World”). 

For the nomads, I once again realized that the concept of time, past – present – future, is inevitably interrelated to the astronomy, the sun and the moon, and the rhythms of the earth and the sky.” 

Khorolsuren Dagvajantsan

The Womb & the Diamond

The Womb & The Diamond – Installation made of handblown glass, mirrors, and a diamond

The Womb & The Diamond, 2021
Installation made of handblown glass, mirrors, and a diamond 300x600cm
Commissioned by Live Forever Foundation, Taichung, Taiwan
Photo by Anpis Wang, Courtesy of Live Forever Foundation, Taichung, Taiwan

The Womb & The Diamond is a large-scale installation composed of an assemblage of over a thousand pieces of glass and mirrors. The diagram is made in reference to The Womb & The Diamond Realm mandalas from Koyasan in Japan. Two principal objects are placed on each side of the mandala: a womb-like glass piece blown by renown Buddhist teacher and filmmaker Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche after a recitation of the Dependent Arising Mantra representing all-encompassing space and a diamond representing indestructibility. Known for writing mantras on ephemeral materials, for this project, Tsai experiments with using breath and the sound vibration of reciting mantras to form each glass piece.