TKG+ (Taipei and Beijing) is pleased to exhibit works from the latest series Lanyu by Charwei Tsai at this year’s Art Stage Singapore (Project Stage, Booth A2-01PS, January 24-27). Created in collaboration with Tibetan director Tsering Tashi Gyalthang on the island of Lanyu, also known as Orchid Island, off the southeastern coast of Taiwan, Lanyu captures the beauty and mystery of the sea, vast and often unpredictable, which the natives have learned to live with, from moment to moment.
A reminder of the destructive power of the sea is reflected in Tsai’s A Dedication to the Victims of the Tsunami of March 11, 2011 (2012), presented at Art Fair Tokyo in March of 2012. Seashells and corals inscribed with the Heart Sutra, a seminal Buddhist text that has been pivotal to the artist’s practice, were dedicated to the victims of the Earthquake and Tsunami in Fukushima, Japan. Memorized by heart as a child in Taiwan, Tsai continues to meditate on the text, which describes the Buddhist concept of “emptiness” and a meditative state in which all phenomena is non-dual. At Project Stage Tsai further alludes to the relationship between global events that have great effect on the local community, but which are less widely known. Lanyu also sustained extensive damage during the typhoon Tembin in August 2012, which Tsai visited and created work in its aftermath. Tsai’s work meditates on a culture that revolves closely around nature, and considers the complex relationships between indigenous belief, the spiritual realm and impermanence.
Charwei Tsai was born in Taiwan (1980) and presently lives and works in Taipei and Paris. In addition to her art practice, Tsai publishes, designs and edits Lovely Daze, a curatorial journal published biannually. Tsai graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design and Art & Architectural History (2002) and completed the postgraduate research program at L’École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (2010). She has held solo exhibitions in Paris, Mumbai, Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Bogotá, and her projects have been included in various international exhibitions, including the inaugural Singapore Biennale (2006), Traces du Sacré at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (2008), the 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (2009), the Yokohama Triennale (2011), the Rhurtriennale (2011), A l’ombre des sens at the Maison Salvan, Labège, France (2012), and Phantoms of Asia (2012), curated by Mami Kataoka, in collaboration with Allison Harding, at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.
The exhibition A Dedication to the Sea by the artist will also be on view at the Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton (Marina Bay Sands, 2 Bayfront Ave #B2-36, Singapore), until February 2013.
The mission of TKG+, the contemporary platform of the Tina Keng Gallery, is to promote and support the most interesting and significant contemporary art from the region. TKG+ privileges experimentation in art across different mediums, from video and photography to installation and new media. As its name suggests, TKG+ believes in the exponential growth and possibility of art in the 21st century.