Meeting Point presents the works of two highly talented Taiwanese artists: Charwei Tsai and Chi-Tsung Wu. In this inaugural exhibition, Tsai and Wu will present, for the first time, a series of new works to the Hong Kong public.
Charwei Tsai and Chi-Tsung Wu were both born in the early 1980s when Taiwan was experiencing a period of drastic political reform and rapid economic growth. The education system set up by the KMT (Kuomingtang) government encouraged and preserved Chinese cultures and traditions in Taiwanese society. Although Tsai and Wu were educated in different contexts - Tsai received a Western education whereas Wu was taught in a local Taiwanese school - their works are both steeped in Chinese culture. Indeed, this is the very meeting point for their artistic practices: a sensibility towards the same poetic aesthetic of the East. Their works differ, however, in that Tsai creates pieces that directly link to her sensitive intuition while Wu’s practice relies on complex layers of logical thinking processes.
Tsai’s new series of work, Incense Mantra, done in collaboration with Tsering Tashi Gyalthang, was shot in the garden of the Asia Society in Hong Kong. Tsai’s practice evolves around the natural environment and the transience of life. Tsai embedded her concerns and findings regarding geographical, social and spiritual issues in her works with highly personal touch of sentiments. The series’ focus on incense - one of the items used in Buddhist rituals as a symbol of offering to the gods and praying for the good health, fortune and safety of one’s family - alludes to the insecurities of the unpredictable and sentiments of uncertainty. Tsai transcribes Heart Sutra on the incense and transforms the impermanent moment into a series of photographs.
Conversely, Wu’s practice reflects upon our perceptions of the physical and natural world and the mechanisms involved in the transformation of images. In Wu’s body of work, he constantly challenged himself by exploring the unknown possibilities of the known materials and techniques. His Wrinkled Texture series is inspired by the “wrinkle” techniques applied in traditional Chinese landscape paintings. By crumbling the Cyanotype paper and exposing it under light, the texture of the paper creates a subliminal beauty which resembles that of Chinese landscape paintings.
At Edouard Malingue Gallery in Hong Kong, two Taiwanese artists Tsai and Wu meet in a city where different cultures continuously overlap. Hong Kong and Taiwan are places both had been colonized by UK and Japan with its root in Chinese culture. In this exhibition, we see how Chinese cultures are interpreted and preserved in a different context. Whether their work stems from a sensitive moment or a logical angle, Tsai and Wu hereby come together in the gallery space, creating an interesting dialogue by sharing the space with their own interpretations.
Exhibition Curator: Jenny Yen Chen Lee
Image: © Chi Tsung Wu, Edouard Malingue Gallery
