Charwei Tsai – Charwei Tsai

Museum of Asian Art

Museum of Oriental Arts, Turin, Exhibition – 2024

Declinazioni Contemporanee
Asian Art Museum, Turin, Italy
2 November 2024 ~ 31 October 2025
Photo by Giorgio Perottino, Courtesy of Asian Art Museum, Turin

Ancient Desires – An Aspiration – is an installation by Charwei Tsai that is composed of over a hundred offering vessels and produced by the artist in Taipei, Paris and Turin. The vessels are presented on a base measuring more than ten metres that crosses through the museum’s entrance. These offering vessels were made using a sophisticated hand-crafted pottery technique and then decorated with prayer inscriptions by the artist. Mixing ritual and artistic tradition, the work encourages the active and performative participation of the visitors, who are asked to make offerings for the collective wellbeing in the vessels.

In connection with her residency project, Charwei Tsai is also presenting two works in dialogue with MAO’s permanent collection, specifically, objects in the Himalayas gallery. The first work, Songs of Chuchepati Camp, 2017, documents the deplorable conditions in the camp for earthquake survivors in Chuchepati, Nepal. The second, a drawing from the Sky Dancers series, pays homage to the five dancers and represents female energy in the tantric tradition.

A set of 24 vessels as unique work is now a part of the permanent collection of the museum.

This project is a part of the Declinazioni Contemporanee exhibition, which features four site-specific commissions using contemporary art as means for reinterpreting and rereading of the museum’s collection, descending on the present to discover new meanings and connections between different periods and cultures.

Ancient Desires – One Taste

Charwei TSAI
In collaboration with the community of Licchavi House, Kathmandu, Nepal
Ancient Desires – One Taste
2024
A set of 1000 ceramic offering vessels made in Nepal
Dimensions variable
Commissioned by Licchavi House, Kathmandu, Nepal

Together with the local Nepalese artistic and spiritual community of both trained and untrained potters, we created more than 1200 ceramic offering vessels made from local clay. Some perishable offerings are hand-inscribed with mantras and are offered inside the vessels. These offerings and vessels are created with the intention to benefit the collective wellbeing of all sentient beings.

This ephemeral project was a part of the exhibition “Annica, Change, Life World” curated by Emily Avery Crow at Licchavi House in Kathmandu, Nepal. Licchavi House was founded by the world renown Bhutanese Buddhist teacher and filmmaker Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.

Asia Now

Asia Now à la Monnaie de Paris du 17 au 20 octobre 2024

Ceremony
Co-curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, Alexander Burenkov, and Radicants
Asia Now at La Monnaie, Paris, France
16 ~ 20 October 2024
Courtesy of Asia Now, Photo by Lionel Belluteau

Exhibited works: “Ancient Desires – One Taste” and “Ndewa & Hamanangu”

The new participatory installation by Charwei Tsai created specifically for the 10th edition of Asia Now will greet the visitors right in the entrance area: the perishable offerings, hand-inscribed with mantras inside the vessels proposed by the performers to the visitors, will serve as a gesture of gift-giving that benefits the collective well-being of all sentient beings. This project is the new iteration of Tsai’s “Ancient Desires – One Taste” created earlier this year In collaboration with the local community of Licchavi House in Kathmandu, founded by the world renown Bhutanese Buddhist teacher and filmmaker Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.

The installation is accompanied by Ndewa & Hamanangu, 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.

The main exhibition of the 10th edition of Asia Now is an international curatorial project that features 18 artists, who shine a light on the concept of ceremony, weaving rituals with art, philosophy, science, and poetry. A ceremony is usually composed of a prescribed sequence of actions, words, and artifacts, frequently enacted at rhythmic intervals, whether daily, weekly, or annually, or during significant milestones. While the term ” ritual ” traditionally evokes images of solemn religious rites, the ceremony opens the door to the cultural practices embedded in daily existence. From culinary rituals to the communal exuberance of festivals, these moments pulse with significance, bridging the sacred and the mundane.

Within the exhibition’s intermediate spaces at La Monnaie, the artistic practices on display engage in earnest inquiries into the rituals of conviviality and social connectivity. The work transcends mere representation, exploring ceremonies through shared experiences, mutual care, and the exuberant expressions of life. At the heart of this exhibition lies a profound motif: cheerfulness as a survival strategy intertwined with the healing power of social connectivity. It invites contemplation on how artistic expressions can facilitate the processing of loss and trauma, particularly in these times marked by conflict and political upheaval. Ultimately, Asia Now stands as a vital testament to the enduring necessity of ceremonies in fostering empathy, resilience, and a shared vision of a more interconnected existence.

Special thanks to Alexandra Fain and her wonderful team at Asia Now.

Festival OFF Avignon

Charwei Tsai & Jen-Chih Yu
“Taiwan s’expose – Taiwan’s visual arts”
Curated by Morgan Labar
15 ~ 24 July 2024
Chapelle des Cordeliers, Avignon
Festival Off Avignon, France
In partnership with École supérieure d’art d’Avignon (ESAA)
and le Centre Culturel de Taïwan à Paris
https://www.festivaloffavignon.com/page/invite-honneur

For the first time in the festival Off Avignon history, Avignon Festival & Compagnies puts the spotlight on a guest country and offers a cultural and artistic journey at the heart of Taiwanese contemporary creation. This ambitious project aims to strengthen the cultural bonds between France and Taiwan, while offering an unprecedented visibility platform for the Taiwanese artistic scene, in as many fields as performing arts, literature, cinema or visual arts.

Curated by Morgan Labar, Director of l’École supérieure d’art d’Avignon for the visual arts section, two France based Taiwanese artists Charwei Tsai and Yu Jen-Chih will present their works at the 12th century Chapel of Cordeliers in the center of the city. The ESAA’s students will welcome guests in support of the art mediation.

Exhibited works:

Charwei Tsai
Coming Together, 2022
Hand-woven and hand-embroidered textile made with hand-spun nettle yarn and shoulang yam dye
200x300cm & 100x200cm
In collaboration with Bulaubulau community, Yilan, Taiwan

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the Japanese colonizers imposed the “five year aboriginal policy” (五年理蕃計劃), which banned tattooing on the face and restricted traditional weaving. Therefore, the knowledge of hand-crafting the yarn and dye from local plants passed down from generation to generation has been lost. Almost two decades ago, the Bulaubulau family revived this knowledge starting with the grandmother recollecting the weaving techniques and passing it down to her daughters and grand-daughters. In the recent years M’l’s (pronounced as Merlers) who is one of her grand-daughters, took the process further and relearned how to make plant based dye locally from plants such guava leaves, turmeric, twigs and berries. During Tsai’s stays with the family, she learned some basic techniques of weaving and together they conceived ideas of creating new textile pieces that honors the female labour and social impact on the community of reviving the craft.

Charwei Tsai
Lanyu: Three Stories, 2012
3 HD Videos with sound, 4 min each
In collaboration with Tsering Tashi Gyalthang

The Lanyu – 3 Stories continues Tsai’s exploration of the relationship between nature, spirituality, and ritual through an examination of the Tao tribe from the Lanyu Island of Taiwan. This series consists of three videos: Hair Dance, Lanyu Seascapes, and Shi Na Paradna. Hair Dance focuses on women from the Tao tribe and their performance of ritual dance, one of which involves using their sensuous long hair to emulate the movement of waves, as a way to ensure the safe return of their men from the sea. Lanyu Seascapes captures the unpredictability of the sea that the natives have learned to live from moment to moment with. While Shi Na Paradna portrays a tale of a boy who lost his soul to the sea and his grandfather performed a ritual of call his soul back from the sea.

Under the Same Sky, Mor Charpentier

Under the same sky, Solo Exhibition – 2024

Under the Same Sky
Solo exhibition at Mor Charpentier, Paris, France
27 June ~ 3 August 2024
Photo by Francois Doury, Courtesy of Mor Charpentier

Under the Same Sky —Charwei Tsai’s third solo exhibition at mor charpentier— offers a comprehensive overview of her artistic practice, which closely intertwines art and spirituality through the elements that make her work so unique: a transdisciplinary approach combining drawing, sculpture, video, and photography.

A nomadic and cosmopolite artist, enriching her artistic practice through multiple trips, Charwei Tsai has explored her spirituality through years of travel, that have immersed her in ancient wisdom traditions from around the world. Her practice is profoundly informed by eastern philosophy and by its texts in particular, such as the Heart Sutra, which draws attention to the emptiness and ephemeral nature of all natural phenomena. It is often transcribed with delicacy over different objects, like shellfish — following their pattern of growth, thus demonstrating the transitory nature of the sutra — or over her recent series of paintings on canvas, made with mineral pigments. For the living, it is recited as a method to connect our inner light with the cosmic light and to see the nature of reality, which is independent.

Her video and installation practice, on the other hand, often focus on social and ecological issues, such as forced migration, incarceration, and environmental degradation. Despite addressing these critical themes, Tsai views herself not as an activist but as an intermediary between art and the world. Through her works she lends her voice to marginalized communities and manifests her commitment to social justice.

Numbers, for instance, a video featuring the voice of Yang Tsui —granddaughter of Taiwanese writer Yang Kui, a political prisoner on the Green Island from 1949 to 1961—, reflects on the reduction of human lives and values to mere numbers in authoritarian and capitalist regimes. But as most of her works, the use of frozen water to represent the impermanence of life, particularly when threatened, emphasizes the ephemeral nature of spiritual and material beings.

Charwei Tsai’s practice embraces sustainability and the preservation of traditional forms of craftsmanship. She collaborates with local communities, sharing resources and promoting a circular economy. Through a critique of the neoliberal structures of contemporary art and society that deplete natural resources and the human spirit, Tsai advocates for ecological consciousness and resource sharing. While aiming to replace the current state of dissatisfaction with practices of offering and solidarity, she pleads for a more mindful and interconnected way of inhabiting the Earth.

In essence, Charwei Tsai’s work is a profound exploration of the cosmic and spiritual dimensions of existence. Through her work as an artist, she invites viewers to contemplate the impermanence and interdependence of life, challenging normative structures and advocating for a more compassionate and sustainable world. Her oeuvre is a testament to the power of art to transcend boundaries and connect us to the deeper rhythms of the universe.

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