A Season for Change
Charwei Tsai: Bulaubulau
Charwei Tsai’s first solo exhibition in the UK demonstrates her prolific multi-media practice with a selection of works that includes installation, film, photography and watercolour. The artworks presented all focus on her experience and research of indigenous communities in Taiwan and the impact of external environmental and social factors. There is a common thread through all which reflects Tsai’s observance of a symbiotic relationship between contemporary sustainable practice and traditional spirituality and rituals.
About this exhibition
CFCCA presents the first UK solo exhibition by Taiwanese artist Charwei Tsai, bringing together a selection of new and existing works including watercolour and ink drawings, photographs, sculpture and films. As one of her most ambitious shows to date, this body of work traces Tsai’s exploration of human existence as well as her research into the sustainable living of indigenous communities in Taiwan.
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- Tsai’s practice is largely concerned with the human – nature relationship, often incorporating geographical, social and spiritual motifs into her works. Photo cred. Michael Pollard.
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- Driftwood (2011) uses pieces of driftwood washed up on the shore in Taiwan during a typhoon. Each is inscribed with the Heart Sutra, a well-known Buddhist scripture which describes crossing to the other shore – a journey of enlightenment. Photo credit. Michael Pollard
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- The Heart Sutra is also echoed in the drawing series We Came Whirling from Nothingness (2014) where spirals are created with watercolour on rice paper. In each, the text gradually disperses into the outer sphere, in contemplation of the essence of impermanence and constant motion. Photo credit. Michael Pollard
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- Lanyu – Three Stories (2012) is a film work consisting of three poetic visual essays that depict the Tao Tribe from the Lanyu island of Taiwan. Hair Dance is one of these – focusing on a ritual dance involving the movement of the hair to emulate waves to ensure safe passage home of family at sea. Film still courtesy of the artist
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- As well as Hair Dance, Lanyu – Three Stories (2013) is made up of Shi Na Paradna (pictured) which is the tale of the loss and return of a young boy’s soul at sea, and Lanyu Seascapes which presents the deposits of nuclear waste in the sea surrounding Lanyu. Film still courtesy of the artist
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- Bulaubulau (2018) is a new film shown for the first time at this exhibition. It takes its name from an Aboriginal village in Yilan, Taiwan. For the past decade this community, having returned to live and work on their ancestral land, successfully fuse modern practices of self-sustanability with the preservation of traditional knowledge. This film is a study of their processes. Film still courtesy of the artist
Tsai’s practice is largely concerned with the human-nature relationship, often incorporating geographical, social and spiritual motifs into her works. Using nature as a metaphor, her work is highly personal yet explores universal themes. Tsai is particularly interested in the symbiotic and interdependent relationship between humanity and nature.
Through her socially-engaged practice, Tsai encounters and explores the lives of indigenous communities in Taiwan who depend on natural resources from land and sea. These communities face both man-made and natural threats to the environment on which their livelihood and culture rely. Through the two film works in the exhibition, Tsai seeks to highlight the injustices inflicted on these communities, often caused by neglect of policymakers, and in light of this celebrates their resilience and success in implementing sustainable economic and educational systems as well as preserving spiritual practices and traditional knowledge.
