2023 Hengshan Calligraphy Biennial Exhibition Period Jan 20 – Apr 24, 2023 Venue Hengshan Calligraphy Art Center Address No. 100, Daren Rd, Dayuan District, Taoyuan City, Taiwan 337
Wu Chi-Tsung will debut his new work series, the Calligraphy Series, at the upcoming 2023 Hengshan Calligraphy Biennial. Co-organized by Taoyuan Museum of Fine Arts and Hengshan Calligraphy Art Center and curated by Wu Chao Jen and Chen I Tso, the inaugural biennial, titled “Era of Principle and No Principle Interwoven”, is centered on the development and future prospect of Chinese Calligraphy in the context of contemporary art.
Wrinkled Texture – Folding Screen 002,《皴法習作 屏風之二》 2022, 215 x 79 x 6pcs
Stand BA04, Galerie du Monde VIP preview days Jan 11, 2023 Public days Jan 12-15, 2023 Venue Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre, 10 Bayfront Avenue, Singapore
Presented by Galerie du Monde, Wu Chi-Tsung’s new works will be shown at the inaugural edition of Art SG. Founded by The Art Assembly, an affiliation of major international art fairs with a particular focus on the Asia Pacific region comprising Taipei Dangdai, India Art Fair, PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai and the forthcoming Tokyo Gendai, the new international art fair will feature over 150 of the world’s leading galleries, from Singapore and across the globe. Art SG offers a meeting point in Southeast Asia for collectors from the region and beyond to convene and engage with one of the world’s most dynamic cultural landscapes.
Among the new works from the Cyano-Collage Seriesand the Wrinkled Texture Seriesspecially created for the new fair, it is noteworthy that the Wrinkled Texture – Folding Screen 002 marks the artist’s first attempt to compose on a traditional folding screen. The series applies the classic cyanotype technique to xuan paper. During this process, the artist treats xuan paper with a photosensitive coating that is then crumpled and exposed to sunlight, revealing images that bring to mind the mountainous landscapes often found in Chinese shan shui paintings. Folding Screen 002 was created amidst continuous rain where light, the key catalyst, was insufficient. The artist adjusted the exposure under the low light conditions and eventually achieved the delicate and subtle palette seen in this work.
本週,世界畫廊將攜吳季璁《氰山集》及《皴法習作》系列新作亮相首屆新加坡國際藝術博覽會(Art SG)。藝博會由旗下包括台北當代、印度藝術博覽會、影像上海藝術博覽會及東京現代等國際藝博會的The Art Assembly聯手瑞銀集團呈現,將匯聚來自全球30個地區逾150間全球頂級世界畫廊,為東南亞及世界各地的藏家提供了齊聚一堂的機會,共賞世界上最有活力的文化景觀。
Sean Kelly Gallery | Booth D11 Preview November 29 – 30, 2022 Public Dates December 1 – 3, 2022 Venue 1901 Convention Center Drive Miami Beach, FL 33139
New works from Cyano-Collage Serieson aluminum board will be presented at the upcoming Art Basel Miami Beach by Sean Kelly Gallery on the fair’s 20th anniversary and Sean Kelly’s 20th year of participation. Since 2002, Art Basel Miami Beach has been a highlight of the global art world calendar, connecting collectors, galleries, artists, and more in an engaging celebration of contemporary art.
In 2019, when Chi-Tsung joined Sean Kelly Gallery, his Cyano-Collage 064 was exhibited at Art Basel Miami Beach. Being exhibited in the Meridian Section, which is a new curatorial section for large-scale artworks and performances, the artist was able to challenge himself to complete a largest-scaled composition.
Installation view of Sean Kelly’s booth in Art Basel Miami Beach Meridians Section, 2019 Cyano-Collage 064, 《氰山集之六十四》,2019, 300x600cm 2019年邁阿密巴塞爾藝術展「藝匯經線」展區
Wrinkled Texture 127,《皴法習作之一百二十七》,2022, 72 x 88 cm
Para Site’s 2022 Fundraising Auction has come to a fruitful end. Together with Galerie du Monde, Wu Chi-Tsung has donated his Wrinkled Texture 127 to the auction, whose proceeds will directly support our exhibitions, programmes, and educational initiatives. The auction also features artworks by renowned international artists such as John Armleder, Antony Gormley, Qiu Zhijie, and Zhao Gang.
Para Site is Hong Kong’s leading contemporary art centre and one of the oldest and most active independent art institutions in Asia. It produces exhibitions, publications, discursive, and educational projects aimed at forging a critical understanding of local and international phenomena in art and society.
Wu Chi-Tsung began the Wrinkled Texture series with the intention to reinterpret the traditional texturing method called cun fa in traditional Chinese landscape painting. Instead of using ink and brush, Wuemploys the classical photographic technique cyanotype, to render the textures.
Wu Chi-Tsung Solo Presentation ADAA Art Show 2022 Sean Kelly Gallery | Booth A10 Preview November 2, 2022 Dates November 3 – 6, 2022 Meet the Artists November 6, 2022, 12:00 pm to 3:00 pm (Wu Chi-Tsung will be present) Venue Park Avenue Armory, New York
Sean Kelly Gallery will present Wu Chi-Tsung Solo Presentation at the ADAA Art Show in New York as the artist’s debut at the Art Show.
Founded in 1962, ADAA is a national non-profit membership organization of art galleries that promotes the highest standards of connoisseurship, scholarship, and ethical practice in the industry. In the classical and elegant neo-Gothic building of the Park Avenue Armory, the exhibition will feature works of art from the Renaissance to the present, including oil paintings, sculptures, prints, drawings and photographs.
The Art Show is distinctive for its focus on solo exhibitions since its inception, allowing galleries to present a comprehensive overview of an artist’s career and explore their aesthetic connotations. This year, 55 of the 78 participating galleries will present solo exhibitions of artists.
This is why Chi-Tsung is particularly looking forward to this solo exhibition. With a historical anchor crossing from the classic to the present, as well as the refined and sophisticated aesthetic taste, ADAA’s focus is in alignment with Chi-Tsung’s professional training and artistic pursuit, where he was trained in the traditions of calligraphy, ink painting, watercolor painting and drawing at a young age, and reflects these time-honored idioms in his contemporary practices.
With new works from the Cyano-Collage Series and a work from the Still Life Series, the solo aims to reveal how Chi-Tsung’s work reflects “the influence of traditional aesthetics in his contemporary works, and at the same time critically consider how the development of media and technology affect the relationship between people and the world.
Artnet featured Wu’s work as one of the 7 must-see works to seek out at the ADDA Art Show. As described by editor Eileen Kinsella, “So much goes into the creation of Wu Chi-Tsung’s meditative, serenity-inducting Cyano-Collages, such as this giant fan-shaped one, which anchored the works in the solo presentation of the booth, created specifically for the show.”
Drawing Study – Limestone Head of Bodhisattva, Sui Dynasty, 《寫生習作 - 隋 灰石菩薩首像》2021, 00;21;01
Buddha10: A Fragmented display on Buddhist visual evolution Dates October 20, 2022 – September 3, 2023 Preview October 19, 2022 Venue Via San Domenico, 11 10122 Torino Italia
Invited by Davide Quadrio, curator of the exhibition who is renowned for working closely in the East Asian art scene over decades, Wu Chi-Tsung’s Drawing Study Series will be presented at Buddha10: A Fragmented display on Buddhist visual evolution at MAO – Museo d’Arte Orientale di Torino (Museum of Eastern Art).
The MAO exhibition will feature collections from different geographical areas and expand through a wide chronological period in the museum’s collection, among which Buddhist sculptures from the Chinese collection will be the highlight, with the aim to offer different perspectives and reflections on the museum and its proud collection of Asian art. The antiques will be echoed by a number of contemporary art practices and new works including the Drawing Study Series. The series originated in 2021 inspired by Chi-Tsung’s collaboration with TAO ART SPACE for his solo exhibition in Taipei, in which he uses a flashlight as a paintbrush to capture the silhouette of ancient Buddhist statues and records the tails of light in space, allowing the outlines of the statues to gradually appear. The gentle movement and the dim glow have created a yūgenism (profound grace and subtlety) atmosphere, symphonizing the timeless quality of the statues that were created centuries ago.
Museum of Eastern Art of Turin 杜林東方藝術博物館
Buddha10 展覽日期 2022年10月20日至2023年9月3日 預覽 2022年10月19日 地址 Via San Domenico, 11 10122 Torino Italia
本次展覽中,策展人從博物館引以為豪的亞洲藝術收藏中精選出來自不同地域、跨越古今的展品,並同時展示與之呼應的當代藝術作品,旨在為亞洲藝術史提供新穎的解讀視角與反思,此觀念與《寫生習作》的創作初衷不謀而合。《寫生習作》佛像系列起源於2021年吳季璁與台北藝術空間TAO ART SPACE的合作,他用手電筒作為畫筆,捕捉古代雕塑的輪廓,記錄空間中的光跡,輕柔的光線緩緩照亮昏暗的佛像,使其輪廓逐漸顯現,創造了一種幽玄的氛圍,映照出佛像幾個世紀以來的永恒與靜謐。
Represented by Sean Kelly Gallery, Wu Chi-Tsung’s Cyano-Collage will return to Frieze London 2022 after its debut in the world-renowned fair last year.
Sean Kelly Gallery | Booth 120 VIP Preview Sep 8, 2022 Public Days Sep 9-11, 2022 Venue Javits Center, 429 11th Ave, New York, NY 10001, United States
Represented by Sean Kelly Gallery, Wu Chi-Tsung’s new workCyano-Collage 135 will be participating in the Armory Art Show in New York. Founded in 1994, The Armory Show is New York City’s premier art fair and a leading cultural destination for discovering and collecting the world’s most important 20th- and 21st-century art.
This June, the first Cyano-Collage Series created on a bronze panel will be exhibited at Sean Kelly Gallery’s booth which marks Wu Chi-Tsung’s debut in Art Basel in Basel. As the development of the series, the artist has experimentally worked with aluminum panels in 2021 and bronze panels this year as a substitute for wooden baseboards to achieve better durability of the works. The metal quality of the baseboard creates a distinct reflection that leaks through the Cyano-Collage landscape and broadens the potential of the series.
Cyano-Collage 145, 《氰山集之一百四十五》, 2022, 225 x 90cm x 4pcs
Galerie du Monde|Booth 1C11
VIP Preview May 25-27, 2022
Public Days May 28-29, 2022
Venue Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hong Kong
In late May, new work from the Cyano-Collage Series in a quadriptych composition will be presented at Galerie du Monde’s booth in Art Basel in Hong Kong.
Cyano-Collage 145, 《氰山集之一百四十五》, 2022, 225 x 90cm x 4pcs
Wrinkled Texture 118, 《皴法習作118》 , 2021, 213.5 x 92 cm
Galerie du Monde|Booth A08
VIP Preview May 19, 2022
Public Days May 20 – 22, 2022
Venue Taipei World Trade Center Hall 1
New works of Wu Chi-Tsung’s will be showcased in Taipei Dangdai Art Fair represented by Galerie du Monde. This will be the premiere of the Cyano-Collage Series on aluminum in Taiwan. Speaking of the Wrinkled Texture Seriesand Cyano-Collage Seriesthat both replace the traditional ink and brush used in Chinese Shan Shui painting with experimental photography, Chi-Tsung once shared that “I started to do Cyanotypes simply because I am not satisfied with digital photography nowadays’, and the process of making the two series ‘really similar to how ink painters do Chinese landscapes: they are constructing a world they want to project themselves inside.”
Opening Reception 18:30, Thursday 05 May 2022 at EMASI Nam Long Public Days May to December 2022 Opening Hours 10:00 ~16:00, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, by appointment only Venue EMASI Nam Long and EMASI Van Phuc, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Cyano-Collage 051 will be exhibited in the group exhibition Illuminated Curiosities. Presented by Nguyen Art Foundation (NAF) and Lan Tinh Foundation and featuring 46 artworks from within and outside NAF’s Collection, the exhibition aims to highlight the unique intersection between art and science, especially in today’s world where artistic experimentation and production continue to be ever more diverse, research-driven, and interdisciplinary.
Established in 2018, the Nguyen Art Foundation has worked to build an alternative infrastructure for the arts in Vietnam. It was founded by Quynh Nguyen, under the advisory of Cam Xanh and focuses on artists connected in any way to Vietnam.
Chi-Tsung met Cam Xanh in Korea in 2016 at the Asia Young 36 exhibition and was later invited by her for an artist residency at MoT+++ which she co-founded. In May 2020, Chi-Tsung and Cam Xanh co-established a studio in Ho Chi Minh City. Except for the Cyano-Collage 051,Still Life 007 – Daffodil and Still Life 012 – Buttercup Treewere also acquired by the foundation.
The opening reception of the group exhibition will take place on May 5 at EMASI Nam Long where Wu Chi-Tsung’s work will be exhibited. Please RSVP via this link.
Still Life 014 — Yellow Mai Flower, 《小品之十四 黃梅》,2020, 6 min 55 sec Acquired by Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Still Life 012 – Buttercup Tree and Still Life 014 – Yellow Mai Flower, both acquired by Santa Barbara Museum of Art, are now on view in the group exhibition Mediated Nature of the museum till December. In an exhibition review in Santa Barbara Independent, it is stated that the works have “challenged our media consumption habits at a different level.”
“Chi-Tsung enacts a faux-pas in an entertainment landscape where plants are mere mute extras meant to signify exoticism. His shots linger on a stationary plant for more than six minutes. In his work, the medium of video is camouflaged as painting. Although celebrating the mundane can be an oversubscribed concept, the elaborate care in Chi-Tsung’s work — the crispness of the colors, the subtle mist-like atmosphere enveloping the plants — bends time. The viewer wonders, ‘Have I been watching this flower for six minutes or 20’?
When the medium changes, so does the message. Chi-Tsung’s “Still Life 012 — Buttercup Tree” carves new depths within our experience of mundanity. A shivering leaf becomes a noteworthy event, and mist traveling slowly along a plant’s wet roots becomes an erotic experience.”
Still Life 012 – Buttercup Tree,《小品之十二彎子木》, 00;06;58, 2019
吳季璁的兩件錄像作品《小品之十二 彎子木》和《小品之十四 黃梅》被美國聖塔巴巴拉美術館收藏,並將於美術館群展《媒介化的自然》中展出至十二月。當地媒體《Santa Barbara Independent》對該展覽的展評稱《小品》系列影像作品從不同角度挑戰了人們的媒介使用習慣。
Cyano-Collage 078, 《氰山集之七十八》,85 x 200cm, 2020 Acquired by the UBS Art Collection
In a recent article featuring the rise of water-themed art in the Financial Times, Wu Chi-Tsung’s Cyano-Collage Series was introduced in detail as a supporting argument for the potential cultural and philosophical depth of Art of this theme.
It was stated that Wu Chi-Tsung didn’t originally intend his cyanotypes to be about water. He began the works with mountains in mind, but soon saw that his photographic blue spaces resembled tumultuous waves. As the series grew he began to explore ways the works could be interpreted as traditional Shanshui paintings, ocean views and natural landscapes.
Chi-Tsung shares that “I was thinking I could try the possibilities of combining earlier techniques and materials, and hoping I could work with Xuan paper.” Regarding the production process that is direct and analogue, “I’m basically like a farmer,” he laughs, “it’s physical. I crumble the paper, I feel the paper. When the humidity is different it affects the paper. If it’s drier, it’s harder. If it’s more humid, it’s softer. There are lots of coincidences that I cannot control. That’s the best part.”
The writer continued to state that the results are abstract but appear like seascapes. “I cannot say if [the work] is concrete or abstract,” Wu adds. “Chinese landscapes never really represent specific mountains. An artist draws their own interpretation of the scene.” Chi-Tsung’s works are growing ever larger: his recent show at Sean Kelly in New York included a triptych of pieces reaching up to 9m high. The works also reflect the artist’s love of rock climbing in Taipei – “facing a giant wall every day and a sea wave just behind me”. Similarly, his aim is to immerse the viewer in the space.
Still Life 014 – Yellow Mai flower, 《小品之十四 黃梅》,2020, 6 min 55 sec
Reimagining: New Perspectives Date January 27 – May 30, 2022 Venue 1285 Avenue of the Americas, New York
We are delighted to share that Wu Chi-Tsung’s Still Life 014 – Yellow Mai Flower was recently acquired by the UBS Art Collection and is featured in the latest exhibition Reimagining: New Perspectives in the UBS Art Gallery in New York.
Located in UBS’s Midtown New York Headquarters, the UBS Art Gallery was initially established in 1985 and has been closed to the public since 2009. This exhibition marks the reopening of the gallery and provides an opportunity for the public to once again discover in person works from one of most important corporate collections of contemporary art in the world.
The exhibition united new acquisitions of the UBS Art Collection. With over 30,000 artworks by some of the most influential artists of our time, the collection aims to collect the most relevant art made today that both challenges and connects people. In 2020, Cyano-Collage 078 was also acquired by the Collection.
Sean Kelly Gallery | Stand A8 Preview February 17, 2022 Public Days February 18-20, 2022 Venue 9900 Wilshire Boulevard,Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Represented by Sean Kelly Gallery, Wu Chi-Tsung’s new works from the Wrinkled Texture Series and the Cyano-Collage Series will be exhibited at Frieze Los Angeles. Last October, upon Chi-Tsung’s first participation in Frieze London, the fair interviewed him in his Taipei studio and produced a documentary video in collaboration with Sean Kelly Gallery. Titled “Wu Chi-Tsung Reinvents Tradition”, the official website of the Frieze featured this video with an article that introduces how he re-evaluates the tradition and his abiding concern with process, perception and vision.
About Frieze
Frieze Art Fair is an international contemporary art fair in London, New York, and Los Angeles.Frieze London takes place every October in London’s Regent’s Park. In the US, the fair has been running on New York’s Randall’s Island since 2012, with its inaugural Los Angeles edition taking place February 2019.[2][3] The fair was launched by Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover, the founders of frieze magazine, and is led by Victoria Siddall, global director of Frieze Fairs. Frieze Art Fair features more than 170 contemporary art galleries, and the fair also includes specially commissioned artists’ projects, a talks programme and an artist-led education schedule.
Cyano-Collage 127,《氰山集之一百二十七》,2022,90 x 210 cm
Sean Kelly Gallery | A8展位 公眾開放 2022年2月18~20日 地址 美國加州洛杉磯比佛利山市威爾榭大道9900號,90210
Wu Chi-Tsung’s solo exhibition jing-atmospheres was listed in the Editor’s Pick by Artnet News. Each week, the website search for the most exciting and thought-provoking shows, screenings, and events, both digitally and in-person in the New York area. Here are editor Sarah Cascone’s introduction to the exhibition:
In his first show at Sean Kelly, Wu Chi-Tsung presents his “Cyano-Collage” series, which reinterprets he traditional ink and brush landscapes of Chinese shan shui paintings—which translates to “mountain-water-pictures”—through the lens of experimental photography. The artist crumples up cyanotype paper that has a photosensitive coating, exposes it to sunlight, and mounts it on aluminum to create collaged images that recall mountainous landscapes.
Wu Chi-Tsung, Cyano-Collage 119 (2021). Cyanotype photography, Xuan paper, acrylic gel, acrylic, mounted on aluminium board in two parts. Each panel: 225 x 91.4 cm; approx. overall: 225 x 180 cm. Courtesy the artist and Sean Kelly.
For his first solo exhibition in the United States at Sean Kelly in New York (jing-atmospheres, 5 November–18 December 2021), Taiwanese artist Wu Chi-Tsung reimagines traditional Chinese landscape painting through film, installation, and photography.
Within this stunning, formally innovative body of works, his ‘Cyano-Collage’ series (2021) utilises Xuan paper treated with photosensitive coating and hung outside to expose them to sunlight. After developing the papers under liquid, the artist combines and mounts them on aluminium.
Exhibition view: Wu Chi-Tsung, jing-atmospheres, Sean Kelly, New York (5 November–18 December 2021). Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York. Photo: Jason Wyche, New York.
Each work in the series contains multiple pieces of Xuan paper, seamlessly collaged into unified compositions with no discernable boundaries. Cyano-Collage 120, for example, resembles a monumental painting of the ocean with thunderous, cerulean waves. These five ‘Cyano-Collage’ works range in size, though the largest ones span entire walls. (The artist built a vast studio to produce this series.) To complete their surfaces, Chi-Tsung applies white acrylic as a mist, which lends a sense of depth to the landscapes. Sometimes this spectral white acrylic resembles an intense energy surge. The beauty of these cyanotype collages is that they are both hyper-realistic and indeterminable, resisting any fixed reading.
‘They could be anything, because they are not representing any real landscape’, the artist has explained. ‘This is the spirit of a Chinese landscape.’
The ‘Cyano-Collage’ works are based on Chinese shan shui paintings, which literally translates to ‘mountain-water-pictures’. And like shan shui, which do not follow Western linear perspective, the ‘Cyano-Collage’ works encourage mobile viewing, inviting the eye to move around the work and construct the image in the process.
Exhibition view: Wu Chi-Tsung, jing-atmospheres, Sean Kelly, New York (5 November–18 December 2021). Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York. Photo: Jason Wyche, New York.
Formally trained in Chinese calligraphy and ink art, Chi-Tsung explores the essence of Chinese landscape painting and what it might offer the viewer. In 2012, he turned to photography to do this. Unsatisfied with the medium’s contemporary formats, Chi-Tsung turned to cyanotype—a method that has been used since the mid-1800s.Various artists, most notably Robert Rauschenberg early in his career, have experimented with the cyanotype process. Drawn to its use of light rather than the dark room, the sun is as important a material to Chi-Tsung as Xuan paper.
Developing the images by exposing them to sunlight, cyanotype offers Chi-Tsung a time- and chance-based process, with the paper’s crumpled surface encouraging different tonalities.
‘The best works,’ the artist has noted, ‘always come from some kind of coincidence . . . Most artists have a strong ego. We try to control our work. But the more you try to control it, the more likely you lose the possibility. Let the work grow in the way it should.’
Exhibition view: Wu Chi-Tsung, jing-atmospheres, Sean Kelly, New York (5 November–18 December 2021). Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York. Photo: Jason Wyche, New York.
While invigorating the Chinese landscape tradition, cyanotypes also offer an exercise in ego depletion, with Chu-Tsing relinquishing control to put faith in the material instead.
The artist’s deference to the life and agency of materials is also evident in the installation Dust (2006), situated in the lower level of the gallery. A camera is positioned at one end of the darkened room with its lens focused on the light of a projector installed at the opposite end.
The camera feeds a live video signal to the projector, which projects this recording of the circulation of dust particles in the room onto the wall behind the camera. As viewers move through the space, they disrupt and speed up the flickering and glimmering of the enlarged dust particles projected on the wall.The result is unexpectedly spiritual: an effervescent projection of colourful, shimmering dots that swirl and move energetically in an otherworldly ambiance.Particles of dust are transformed into an entire cosmos. The material here is not only the technological support of the camera and projector, but also dust itself—something so banal and ubiquitous that Chi-Tsung animates with life and verve of its own.
Chi-Tsung refers to the Buddhist term zi xing (自性), which translates to ‘self-being’, or one’s own nature. ‘If I could just lower my ego,’ he says, ‘and let the material show what it is, at the same time I could get real freedom through that. In this way I am helping the material to find its own being.’
The brilliance of Chi-Tsung’s works lies in the fact that he elevates materials—dust, Xuan paper, and sunlight—beyond human meanings and uses, with an unerring sense that the material is as in control of the final outcome as the artist himself.
Exhibition view: Wu Chi-Tsung, jing-atmospheres, Sean Kelly, New York (5 November–18 December 2021). Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York. Photo: Jason Wyche, New York.
Exhibition view: Wu Chi-Tsung, jing-atmospheres, Sean Kelly, New York (5 November–18 December 2021). Courtesy Sean Kelly, New York. Photo: Jason Wyche, New York.
Produced by Frieze Studios in collaboration with Sean Kelly New York Frieze Studio製作、尚凱利畫廊協製影片
‘I started to do Cyanotypes simply because I am not satisfied with photography nowadays’ explains artist Wu Chi-Tsung in this video, filmed in his studio in Taipei, Taiwan. A technique drawn from the early era of photography, Wu executes his Cyanotypes by applying chemicals to Xuan paper, which is crumpled by hand and exposed to sunlight on the roof of his studio; the artist then arranges the glacial forms that emerge onto aluminium mounts. The resultant ‘Cyano-Collages’ recalling the landscapes of the traditional shan shuior ‘mountain water’ tradition.
‘It’s really similar to how ink painters do Chinese landscapes,’ says Chi-Tsung, ‘they are building up, creating the worlds they want to project themselves inside.’ Trained in the traditional idioms of calligraphy and brush and ink Chi-Tsung’s commitment to innovative use of new and historic media and technology has seen him engage photography, projection, installation and moving image in works such as Dust (2006) and Wire VI (2021). Despite this diversity, his practice is united by an abiding, almost spiritual concern with process, perception and vision. ‘I’m helping material to find its own being ’ Chi-Tsung explains, ‘at the same time I open up myself’.
Still Life 012 – Buttercup Tree,小品之十二 彎子木,00;06;58,2019
Still Life 012 – Buttercup Treewas recently donated to Los Angeles County Museum of Art by Ink Foundation and was showcased in the group exhibition INK Dreams of the museum.
The exhibition featured works from the ink collection of French collectors and philanthropists Gerard Cognie and Dora Cognie, who have lived in Switzerland for nearly 20 years. In the name of the Ink Foundation, the couple have generously donated nearly 400 works to LACMA, a vast collection of ink-related artworks that will shift the direction of the research on contemporary Chinese art at the museum.
The Ink Foundation’s research is not limited to Chinese art, but focuses on the spirit of ink painting, and includes international contemporary artworks into it. Artists in this collection includes Chinese artists Bing Yi, Gu Wenda, Li Huasheng, Lin Tianmiao, Liu Dan, Liu Guosong, Xu Bing, and Zheng Chongbin, as well as Japanese, Korean, and international artists such as Park Seo-Bo, Lee U-fan, and Hiroshi Sugimoto, Osamu Suzuki, Kitamura Junko, Idris Khan, Shirazeh Houshiary, Ophelie Asch, Irma Blank, and many others. The works in the collection range from calligraphy to ink paintings, sculpture, prints, and installation works, and Wu Chi-Tsung’s Still Life Series is the only video installation in the collection.
LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States, with seven galleries and a collection of more than 135,000 objects covering modern and contemporary art, ancient art, American art, Asian art, European art, and more. The Museum is committed to drawing inspiration from the region’s rich cultural heritage and diverse populations, and to sharing a diverse and global-minded art history.
Still Life 012 – Buttercup Tree,《小品之十二彎子木》, 00;06;58, 2019
Two of Wu Chi-Tsung’s video works, Still Life 012 – Buttercup Tree and Still Life 014 – Yellow Mai Flower, were acquired by Santa Barbara Museum of Art. The works are now exhibited in the group exhibition MediatedNature.
Located in California, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) was established in 1941, and its building was formerly a post office in the downtown. As a small to medium-sized local museum, the collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Fine Arts is exquisite and delicate, with a high span of works collected across ancient and modern Europe and Asia, including early Greek and Roman artifacts, Asian art and antiquities from China, Japan and Korea, 19th and 20th century European and American paintings, and international contemporary art.
For each collection focus, more than one curator in the museum is responsible for its exhibition and acquisitions plans. It is worth mentioning that the Museum’s Photography and New Media Art is an independent department, currently led by curator Charlie Wylie, and the acquisition of the Still Life Series was carried out by this department. The Museum also has a strong connection to the local community. Many art lovers enthusiastically volunteer to be docents during their leisure time. In addition to private donations as a source of funding, the museum also relies on generous donations from the public, making the museum a place where memories and histories are shared with local residents.
Wu Chi-Tsung Is Drawing Global Notice for Revamping Chinese Landscape Painting With Video, Light, and a Big Dose of Chance
The Taiwanese artist hopes his journey to the international stage might be an inspiration for other young artists from Asia.
Wu Chi-Tsung and his Cyano-Collage series. Photo by Jason Wyche. Courtesy of the artist and Sean Kelly Gallery.
When the artist Wu Chi-Tsung decided to take a leap of faith and seek representation outside his native Taiwan five years ago, he might have only hoped that it was the start of a global adventure. His travels have since taken him to Hong Kong, Berlin and now the U.S., where the 40-year-old has his first solo show this week at Sean Kelly Gallery in New York. Wu sees the exhibition as a major breakthrough not only for his own career but also, possibly, for other Asian artists of his generation.
“I really hope this journey, one that has been full of trial and error in finding a way out, can inspire more young artists to go out to find opportunities, to see this big world,” Wu told Artnet News, speaking on a video call from the New York gallery where he was putting the final touches on his exhibition “Wu Chi-Tsung: jing-atmospheres“, opening on November 4.
The embrace of the unknown not only forms the basis of Wu’s philosophy towards his life, but his artistic practice as well. From the production process to the final outcome, his work is often full of surprises, even to the artist himself.
An installation shot of “Wu Chi-Tsung: jing-atmospheres”. Photo: Jason Wyche. Courtesy of the artist and Sean Kelly
Take his well-known Cyano-Collage series, for example. They might look like traditional Chinese ink landscape paintings from afar, but on closer inspection, the works are an amazing illusion created using cyanotypes on Xuan paper, which is treated with a photosensitive coating and then exposed in the sunlight. The paper is crumpled, forming wrinkles and cracks. Each piece is an experiment, and when they are all put together, they form a collaged image that might resemble a mountain, or sometimes glaciers, or stormy seas.
“Most artists have a strong ego. We try to control our work,” Wu said. “But the more you try to control it, the more likely you lose the possibility. Sometimes, we should just let it go. Let the work grow in the way it should.”
Confronting challenges and changes
Wu has studios in Taipei and Berlin, and he also sometimes works in Vietnam. But his jet-setting practice was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Unable to travel abroad, Wu turned to explore his native Taiwan instead, readopting his teenage passion of rock climbing on some of the wildest cliffs that can be found on the island. The challenges to his physical and mental strength that come from dangling over the edge of a precipice also helped reset his views on professional and personal growth.
“I’ve known myself better. It has been a preparation for my life this year,” the artist said.
Wu Chi-Tsung, Drawing Study 001 – Seascapes Longdong. Courtesy of the artist.
And it has indeed been a busy year for Wu. Before this month’s show with Sean Kelly, the artist had already staged two solo exhibitions, one with Galerie du Monde in Hong Kong in March, and the other with Tao Art Space in Taipei in May. But while the two Asian shows highlighted the distinctive elements of Wu’s work that are already familiar to local audiences, the New York show takes a completely different approach. “It is a very clear survey of my practice,” Wu said.
The show at Sean Kelly Gallery also acts as a formal introduction of his work to a U.S. audience. A great deal of the artist’s time over the past few months has been spent on discussing the curatorial approach behind the presentation, Wu said, and the result is a streamlined narrative of his career.
At the start of the exhibition is a work from the Wire series, which Wu began developing in 2003. The moving image installation uses a set up similar to a magic lantern (an early type of projector), with a strong light shining through a piece of crumpled wire mesh, while a motor constantly shifts the focus of the projected image on the wall, creating an enigmatic impression of mountains.
The show also includes video works, such as Wu’s Still Life series, which feature hazy close-ups of flowers and plants, as well as Drawing Study 001 – Seascape Longdong, created this year and showing a breathtaking view of Taiwan’s coast.
The centerpieces of the show are the large-scale Cyano-Collage works—one measuring 9 meters by 3 meters and the other a massive circle with a diameter of 3.6 meter. Wu said he had to set up a new studio just to create the monumental works.
Concluding the exhibition is Dust, in which particles floating in the air are projected on the gallery wall. The circular motion of glittering dust “looks like a universe from an Eastern cultural perspective,” Wu said, adding: “I’m happy about the whole show.”
Installation shot of “Wu Chi-Tsung: jing-atmospheres”. Photo: Jason Wyche. Courtesy of Sean Kelly.
The Journey from Taiwan to an International Stage
Born in 1981, Wu studied oil painting at the Taipei National University of the Arts. He had a few solo shows in Taiwan during the early stages of his career, but the island of around 24 million people was not big enough to contain his ambition.
Wu took up artist residencies in New York, as a grantee of the Asian Cultural Council in 2013, and in Berlin, at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in 2017. Galerie du Monde, one of Hong Kong’s oldest galleries, helped introduce the artist to a more international art crowd, not just through gallery shows but at Art Basel Hong Kong in 2018, with a solo booth that sold out on the fair’s opening day. And Wu’s reinterpretation of traditional Chinese landscape painting won him the coveted Liu Kuo Sung Ink Art Award in Hong Kong.
Today, Wu is among a small group of East Asian artists who are appearing on a world stage thanks to the attention of Western galleries. The accomplishment is even rarer for an artist of his age, and coming from Taiwan. While many leading Western galleries have set up shop in Asia, only a handful of them have brought relatively young Asian artists back to the dealers’ home turf in Europe or the U.S.
Simon Lee Gallery, for example, has shown the Hong Kong-based artist Chris Huen (born 1991) in London in 2020. Cao Fei (born 1978), from mainland China, is now having a solo show with Sprüth Magers in Los Angeles. White Cube has presented the Berlin- and Beijing-based He Xiangyu (born 1986) in London. And Eli Klein Gallery in New York staged a group show of paintings from Taiwan by artists from different generations, including Chou Tai-Chun, Chih-Hung Liu, Hai-Hsin Huang and Hu Chau-Tsung—all born in the 1980s—alongside the work of Modern masters such as Hsiao Chin and Ho Kan.
Wu Chi-Tsung, Dust (2021). Photo: Sylvia Lee. Courtesy of the artist.
Sean Kelly, who opened a project space in Taipei in the beginning of 2019, saw adding Wu to his star-studded roster of artists as “a big responsibility and a big opportunity,” he told Artnet News. “I was just immediately really impressed with him. I was very drawn to the fact that he had a rigorous formal training in Chinese ink landscape painting. But at the same time, clearly, his intelligence and natural inquisitiveness has led him from the traditional form of depiction to a very postmodern position of questioning his formal training, [and] the formal presentation of the work.”
Kelly has included Wu’s work in previous group shows and brought it to art fairs, most recently Frieze London, where three of Wu’s works sold on the opening day. “Frankly, he was the star of the show,” the dealer said. “If we’d had 10 of his works, we would’ve sold them all.”
Kelly also believes that the artist has what it takes to weather the art world’s shifting tastes. “Wu Chi-tsung has a very distinctive language, one that is rooted in traditions but also feels very international and contemporary,” the dealer noted.
And Wu is certainly ready to embark on the next chapter of his career. His work is already included in some institutions in the U.S., such as the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. He is now spending around two months in America, traveling between the East and West coast shows.
“I don’t feel that I’m bringing my work around to show people, but rather, my art takes me around and shows me the world,” Wu said, adding: “It’s a privilege to be an artist. Our lives are unexpected, full of possibilities. We never know what will happen.”
Written by/ Vivienne Chow
近日,吳季璁接受Artnet專訪,分享目前於Sean Kelly Gallery進行的紐約個展《境》的細節與創作心得。
jing-atmospheres Dates November 5 – December 18, 2021 Opening Reception Thursday, November 4, 6-8pm
Sean Kelly is delighted to present jing-atmospheres, Wu Chi-Tsung’s first solo exhibition in the gallery and indeed the United States. Chi-Tsung’s innovative body of work encompasses a broad range of media including photography, video, installation, and painting, in which he combines traditional and contemporary forms and methodologies to explore perceptions of the physical and natural worlds. This exhibition features new Cyano-Collages, videos, and an immersive film installation. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, November 4 from 6-8pm, the artist will be present at the gallery.
Wu Chi-Tsung was trained from an early age in the traditions of Chinese calligraphy, Chinese ink painting, watercolor, and drawing, and worked in these time-honored idioms for many years. While those practices still inform his process, Chi-Tsung’s current work seeks to understand how media and technology are manipulated to represent our relationship to the world. In the main gallery, there are new iterations of his Cyano-Collage series, in which he connects Eastern and Western culture and art to integrate traditional aesthetics within a striking contemporary language. His Cyano-Collages replace the traditional ink and brush used in Chinese shan shui paintings –literally, “mountain-water-pictures”—with experimental photography to reinvigorate the traditional landscape language. To create these stunning images, Chi-Tsung prepares hundreds of cyanotype photographic papers—Xuan paper treated with a photosensitive coating—that are crumpled, exposed to sunlight, and then mounted onto aluminum, creating a spectrum of tonalities. The results are collaged images that resemble the mountainous landscapes often found in Chinese shan shui paintings, but which are produced using completely a contemporary process.
Utilizing video, installation, and photography, Wu Chi-Tsung discovered in these new media compelling conceptual stratagems that spurred new and dynamic approaches to image making. Featured in the main gallery are two new films from Wu Chi-Tsung’s Still Life series, that conceptually translate motifs of traditional cut-branch flower painting into time-based moving images. Describing these works, Chi-Tsung stated that they are inspired, “by a cherished memory of painting; however, the mourning over this lost memory might not be limited to painting only. Some nameless emotions and memories unconsciously and slowly dissipate until, to our surprise, they are far away and cloaked by a white mist, their appearances obscured.”
In the front gallery, is a work from Wu Chi-Tsung’s Wire series, begun in 2003. Applying a structure similar to a magic lantern – an early type of image projector that used a light source, pictures printed on transparent plates, and one or more lenses – Chi-Tsung’s Wire VI, uses an automated mechanical control to repeatedly adjust the focal length of a camera trained on a single piece of wire mesh. A strong light illuminates the mesh and is directed through a large camera lens that projects a continually evolving image onto the wall. The result is a moving image that suggests an exquisite Chinese landscape. With this work, Wu Chi-Tsung explores how images change the way we see and imagine the outside world.
In the lower gallery, Chi-Tsung’s 2006 installation, Dust, investigates the artist’s deep concern with our relationship to images. A camera, positioned at one end of the darkened gallery, has its lens focused on the light of a projector installed at the opposite end of the room. The camera is focused on the center of the room and sends a live video signal to the projector. Thus, a recording of the reflection of the circulation of dust particles moving about the room are projected on the wall, wavering and glimmering. As viewers progress through the space, disrupting the flow of air, the images of flickering dust change constantly and instantaneously. The emerging and hidden images in Chi-Tsung’s work suggests a new relationship between artist and media, image and viewer.
Born in 1981 in Taipei, Wu Chi-Tsung currently lives and works in Taipei, Taiwan and Berlin, Germany. He was the recipient of the Liu Kuo Sung Ink Art Award, Hong Kong and Taiwan, 2019, the WRO Media Art Biennial, 2013 and the Taipei Arts Award, 2003. He was short-listed for the Prudential Eye Awards, 2015 and the Artes Mundi, 2006. His work has been included in international exhibitions at institutions such as the Mori Art Museum, Japan; the National Museum Cardiff, United Kingdom; the Long Beach Museum of Art, Los Angeles; the Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art Contemporain, Luxembourg; the Museo Del Palacio De Bellas Artes, Mexico; the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) Art Museum, Beijing, China; Shanghai Art Museum, China; the Seoul Museum of Art, South Korea; the Minsheng 21st Century Museum, Shanghai, China; the Museum of Contemporary Art Yinchuan, China; the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan; the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing, China and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan amongst others. His work is included in renowned collections such as the Arario Museum, Seoul, South Korea; the Borusan contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey; the M+ Museum, Hong Kong, China; the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California; the Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas; the The University of Salford Art Collection, Salford, United Kingdom; the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China; the White Rabbit Gallery, Chippendale, Australia; the Yu Hsiu Museum of Art, Nantou, Taiwan and the Post Vidai Collection, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Production process of Cyano-Collage 120, 2021, 300 x 900cm
Being listed as one of the ‘most exciting and thought-provoking’ show in New York area by the Artnet, Wu Chi-Tsung’s solo exhibition jing-atmospheres will be closing tomorrow.
Wu considers the New York show a very clear survey of his practice. The show features works that span his whole artist career, as early as theWire VIwhich has been developed since he was a college student, as well as the installation work Dust, and as recent as the two huge Cyano-Collage Series that were conducted at the new Tamsui studio, and three video works.
Before the exhibition’s opening, Wu Chi-Tsung was interviewed by author Vivienne Chow at Artnet. Her article, titled Wu Chi-Tsung Is Drawing Global Notice for Revamping Chinese Landscape Painting With Video, Light, and a Big Dose of Chance reviewed Wu Chi-Tsung’s international journey after he realized that Taiwan is not big enough to contain his ambition.
The article states that Wu is now “among a small group of East Asian artists who are appearing on a world stage thanks to the attention of Western galleries. The accomplishment is even rarer for an artist of his age, and coming from Taiwan. While many leading Western galleries have set up shop in Asia, only a handful of them have brought relatively young Asian artists back to the dealers’ home turf in Europe or the U.S.”
Wire VI ,2021
Wu Chi-Tsung has received art training from both Eastern and Western sources, which is a common upbringing in Taiwan.“We actually grew up bilingual, and it is unlikely that a Western artist would have practiced calligraphy and ink painting since childhood, but Asian artists are generally trained in Western art, and this is obviously our best characteristic and competitive advantage”, said the artist to Vogue Taiwan in an interview prior to the show. In addition, he has taken up artist residencies in several countries. In addition to the two studios in Taiwan, he has set up studios in Saigon and Berlin. The intensity of his experience in both Eastern and Western cultures, as well as the breadth of his vision has contributed to the fascinating diversity and openness in his works, from materials, aesthetic to concept. Whether to audiences from different cultures or professionals in the fields of new media, ink painting, or photography, his work always strikes them as a mixture of familiarity and surprise. By introspecting and outlooking, Wu Chi-Tsung has formed an unique artistic language that is rich and liberated, and free from language and cultural barriers.
Wu shared that, “I really hope this journey, one that has been full of trial and error in finding a way out, can inspire more young artists to go out to find opportunities, to see this big world.”
Produced by Frieze Studios, in collaboration with Sean Kelly, New York
Bustling back and forth over cities across the world, Wu Chi-Tsung dexterously shuttled through the art world, as if it was a natural practice. This day we came to Wu Chi-Tsung’s new studio in Tamsui, Taipei. Apart from here, he also has studios in Yuanshan in Taipei, Berlin, and Ho Chi Minh City. These studios scattered around the world are not only for practical needs but also for Wu Chi-Tsung’s strategy of observing the world.
A studio space that can accommodate museum level presentation
“This is the most well-equipped space I have ever had. It’s like working in an art museum.” Wu Chi-Tsung sat in a corner of his new studio, and the sunlight fell through the large glass windows and landed on his shoulders.
This new studio is located in the residential area of Danhai New Town. Facing a wide, neat street, it locates on the first floor with high ceilings. Here, Wu Chi-Tsung drives a scissor lift, ascending and descending in the spacious space, busy making two huge “Cyano-Collage Series” to be exhibited at Sean Kelly Gallery in New York. This will be his first solo exhibition in New York– his new studio coming out of a need for this work.
The main exhibition hall of Sean Kelly Gallery in New York is the size of a basketball court. Two large works are required, which are difficult to be accommodated in his old Yuanshan studio. “In Yuanshan, when you want to see the complete composition of the work, you have to open the iron rolling door on the first floor and retreat across the road.” One of the new “Cyano-Collage Series” scales three meters by nine meters in size. “It is unlikely that I would create works larger than this anymore. We have already challenged the limits of the new space by creating it” While standing in front of the large “Cyano-Collage Series” work, people would feel as if they are in a real mountain, and would almost lose control to dive in.
A studio is different from an art gallery. It is a place where the artist lowers his head and sweats to work. However, Wu Chi-Tsung planned his new studio according to the specifications of an exhibition hall, aligning the working environment with the exhibition conditions. Therefore, “Before I arrive in New York, I can already accurately foresee what the work looks like on-site.” He said that the most difficult aspect of space planning is to master good scale and proportions. For example, some exhibition spaces have very high ceilings, but the proportion between the work and the space as well as between viewers and the space may be weird. Having spacious space and high ceilings do not necessarily bring enjoyable visiting experiences.
During his creating process, Wu Chi-Tsung skillfully uses scaffolding and scissor lifts to move across the work, like playing with a toy. “Compared to see the completed work at the exhibition site, where everything is neatly presented, sometimes the creative process is more interesting.” Wu says, looking up at the “Cyano-Collage Series”, the upper part of which has not yet been completed. Xuan papers are selected to be mounted on the aluminum plate, blowing under the fanlike ocean waves. ” Normally audiences won’t have the chance to see this kind of scene of the Cyano-Collage Series. The nature of this work is actually a collage of randomnesses formed by wrinkled pieces of Xuan paper.”
Wu Chi-Tsung said that interacting with materials and technology is what he finds the most interesting. With a large high-ceilinged studio and the help of scaffolding and scissor lifts, he is able to change the way of interacting with his works. “When people see what is behind-the-scene, they can understand how the work is created step by step and will have a completely different understanding to the work.” Chi-Tsung and his team have moved to the new studio for less than a month, and there is already a thin layer of paper scraps and glue on the ground underneath the work. “This is a habit of mine in the studio. Basically, everyone is not allowed to clean up the ground.”
Everything that happened in the studio left traces. When the artist picks his brush, the glue drips along the way and leaves marks. When piles of Xuan paper soaked in photosensitive solution generally turn into different shades of blue, they would dye the floor on the ground.” In contrast, I will feel a lot of pressure if the space is too neat and tidy, so I will have to be constantly aware of not to mess the space up, and my attention will be distracted.” In the artist’s studio, randomness can also be a precious inspiration. ‘
Physical and spiritual polished by trainings of rock-climbing
Wu Chi-Tsung exposes cyanotype-treated xuan paper on the rooftop of Yuanshan Studio
“I also plan to install a climbing wall here.” Until now, Wu Chi-Tsung still always recalls the training time when he was in the rock climbing team back in high school. He shared with us the three-day round of intensive training routine at that time. Back then, he only wanted to be stronger and freer. Rock climbing is all about the present. Wu Chi-Tsung said “Sometimes you will find yourself in a tricky stage seven or eight stories above the ground. You may fall at any time. And this is time you have to think about nothing but to concentrate on every action at the moment.” Rock climbing and art creation are similar things, both require your spirituality and physicality to be present. When you challenge the limitations of your body, you may find the essence of your existence. “It’s a kind of freedom.”
“Freedom” has always been a keyword to Wu Chi-Tsung: the freedom to exceed the limits of the body when exercising, the freedom to imagine when creating. “However, freedom does not mean to do anything without rules, but something that I, the materials and tools in my hand conform to each other and develop together in the most natural and comfortable state of each other.”
Looking at the half-completed “Cyano-Collage Series” on one side of the studio and the wall with only aluminum panels on the other side, Wu introduces, “These two huge works are like marathons. They are very tiring and require strong organizational skills and concentration, but I enjoy this unprecedented challenge a lot.” After this, he jumped on the scissor lift again, taking the time to finish the ‘clouds’ on the aluminum plate.
Awakening the Study on Materials of Traditional Media
Wu Chi-Tsung has received art training from both Eastern and Western sources, which is a common upbringing in Taiwan. “We actually grew up bilingual, and it is unlikely that a Western artist would have practiced calligraphy and ink painting since childhood, but Asian artists are generally trained in Western art, and this is obviously our best characteristic and competitive advantage.” This has prompted him to reexamine the classic as well as learn from the West, to explore personal, regional, and contemporary particularities, and to try to mend the gap between East and West, tradition and modernity.
Wu Chi-Tsung believes that it will be a hard act to follow what has been achieved by the ancient people, so he has taken a different path by replacing ink and brush with other media and using experimental photography to continue the landscape tradition. He said, “After all, the ancients could not be possible to climb onto the rock wall and observe them as I do. “
For the “Cyano-Collage” series, Wu Chi-Tsung conducted research on Xuan paper, learning about the material.
In the creation of the “Cyano-Collage” series, it is necessary to apply a layer of acrylic gel for the collage of xuan paper (Photo: Hedy Chan Credit: Vogue Taiwan)
In 2018, he established a studio in a residential building with a rooftop in Yuanshan. The daily routine of this studio was almost revolving around “paper” and the four floors of the building each has their own function:the rooftop for exposing cyanotype-treated xuan paper, the fourth floor for “washing” the paper and other machinery works, the third floor for the creation and presentation of the works, and the paper scraps and traces of glue on the floor of the second floor have reached the thickness of snow…“In order to find the most suitable type of xuan paper for the cyanotype process, we have experimented on dozens of types of them. By countless research and experiments, we get to understand the material better”. This is also what he differs from painters and calligraphers from the past. To Wu, xuan paper is the paper with the most complicated and sensitive quality among all. With different manufacturing methods, they are capable to carry out broad color variations of ink that are extremely delicate.
The cultivation of the two cultures of the East and the West gave Wu Chi-Tsung a broader mind and vision, and his works that combined Western contemporary media and the spirit of Eastern aesthetics translated the world they were not familiar with to Western audiences. “Through my work, xuan paper is able to be noticed by more people. For example, when I was exhibiting in Europe when the audience learned about the production process of the “Cyano-Collage Series”, they were all amazed by the outstanding resilience of the xuan paper after being crumpled, flattened, soaked, and dried. If in this way, more artists from other countries will also start to become interested in this material and begin to use it in their creations, can this traditional eastern media breathe a new life in the contemporary art world? “If 20% of the artists working with paper in Europe adapt xuan paper, the whole industry will be resurrected.”
Wu Chi-Tsung believes that the overall consideration and management of art from the stage of the production of materials is a practical matter. “I spend so much time researching materials, of course, I hope that it will continue to be produced. People tend to think that art is something remote and abstract. In fact, it IS such a practical thing. Interacting with materials and technology is part of the creation.”
“Wire II”, metal, glass, acrylic, 2003 ZENARI
Be natural, be harmonic
Behind the huge Cyano-Collage landscape, the research and application of materials also embody Eastern philosophies and fundamentally establish the aesthetic tone and value orientation of the works. “Western paper was developed for a high degree of control, while Eastern paper has a high degree of variability in aesthetic values.” This is the so-called “naturally.” When creating, Wu Chi-Tsung thought about how to make the material develop. For example, rice paper is thin and tough. When crumpled, its characteristics can be expressed naturally. But if you make origami, expect it to have a specific shape, “I will do it very painfully, and the paper will probably be very uncomfortable.” The idea of control arises, and the characteristics of paper cannot be unfolded, so the more you create, the more limited it becomes.
It is necessary to minimize control and allow the integration of materials and technologies to occur naturally. Only then can the underlying “own being” unfold. He showed us the pottery he made in his spare time during the Covid-19 pandemic. He said that while making pottery, you also need to learn to interact with the clay, not attempting to control them. “Every material has its own character, just like people, we can only follow it to dig out its unique texture, or the unique chemical reaction between me and the material.”
International studio across Europe and Asia
Speaking of his life as an international artist, Wu Chi-Tsung introduces, “If it weren’t for the Covid-19, I would be spending maybe only one-third of the year in Taiwan, and other times I would be living, creating, finding inspiration, or conducting research on materials and technology in my studios around the world.”
The two huge “Cyano-Collage Series” on the wall of the Tamsui studio will be sent to the United States immediately after completion. While being asked why not consider establishing a studio in New York? Wu Chi-Tsung replied, “New York is too charming for anyone to dislike. But it may not be suitable as a base for artists to create.” In 2013, Wu Chi-Tsung was granted by the Asian Cultural Council (ACC) for a half-year residency program. It is when he realized that the high cost of goods and intense competition made it a difficult place to live and work in as a young artist. “It’s not a place where people can calm down and be focused.”
“I like Vietnam very much. Compared with New York, it is a jungle where everything is in a very initial and chaotic state.” It is an art world that is growing and forming its shape, and the experience here is unprecedented. “For example”, Wu Chi-Tsung said, “if you hold an open studio in Saigon, half of the Saigon art circle will show up, and the art ecology here is a close community. ” Berlin is an intermediate value for Wu Chi-Tsung. The historical background and economic structure of the city have brought artists from all over the world into the city, forming another spectacle full of life. “Berlin has changed a lot. My studio is the place where the secret police gathered in the old East Germany.” The history of political prisoners and the political atmosphere of the East German era are still there, but at the same time, it is an inclusive city “Why there can there be so many interesting things happening in Berlin? The relatively low price is absolutely the key.” Because the space cost is low, you can try as much as you want without the pressure to succeed.
2018 at Bali Studio, now relocated
Free artistic spirit
He added that as an artist, he is very lucky. He travels around the world and communicates with different people. Through traveling and working in various cities, he accumulates the experience of interacting with different people. He sees that people have very different imaginations towards what it means to work with art.
“Most people consider that artists are people who make works, which is incorrect. The creation of works is only part of the work. What we do is ‘the whole thing about art’.” Wu Chi-Tsung said. “Including academic research, art market operation, international relations, and even thinking about the production of materials. The international studio layout allows him to integrate information and resources most efficiently, and to re-recognize himself from the perspective of others so that he can really know himself and understand his uniqueness compared to others. “When I was in Taiwan, I didn’t think there were any problems; after I left Taiwan, I could see its characteristics and limitations.”
He chose to transcend limitations. He is exploring to make use of his studios in Berlin, Ho Chi Minh City, Yuanshan, and Tamsui. In each of them, an aspect of Wu Chi-Tsung’s personality dwells. Shuttling between the past and now, east and west, his personality and creativity never stop growing.
The cyanotype-treated xuan paper in the sun, the color is gradually developing under the light due to the impact of photosensitive solutions
The settings of these studios seem to be rational and full of logic, but they actually more of a natural result of Chi-Tsung’s career development to fit his need than a deliberate arrangement. . And the fundamental reason that drives him to bravely cross the border may be just the kind of spirit he has experienced in many years of rock climbing training, that is, beyond the limits, the spirit of freedom.
這個新的工作室座落在淡海新市鎮住宅區,街道寬闊,一樓挑高氣派。吳季璁駕駛著高空作業車,在偌大的方正空間中上升下降,忙著製作即將前往紐約 Sean Kelly Gallery展覽的巨幅《氰山集》系列新作。這將是他首次在紐約的個人展覽,而這個新工作室基本上也是為此誕生。
紐約 Sean Kelly Gallery的主展場有籃球場這麼大,需要兩件大型作品,原有的圓山工作室空間受限。「在圓山,要看作品完整構圖時,得把一樓的鐵捲門打開退到馬路對街,才能看到整體。」新工作室挑高五米七,主牆寬度十米,牆面上一幅創作中的《氰山集》,尺寸是三米乘九米。「應該很少會有比這個尺幅更大的作品了,已經用到這個空間的極限。」巨幅的《氰山集》像一座巨山真的矗立於眼前,稍一走神就想往作品裡面奔去。
淡水工作室牆面上那兩幅巨大《氰山集》,完成後就要立刻飛往美國,被問到為何不考慮在紐約也設立工作室?吳季璁回答:「紐約是一個太有魅力的城市了,沒有人會不喜歡它。但未必適合作為一個藝術家創作的base。」2013年吳季璁到Asian Cultural Council (ACC)駐村半年,發現其發展階段並不合適紐約這個城市,高物價成本,機會和競爭抗衡抵銷,對起步的藝術家來說難以消化。「它不是一個可以讓人安靜、專注的地方。」
Stand D15, Sean Kelly New York VIP Preview days October 13-14, 2021 Public days October 15-17, 2021 Venue The Regent’s Park, London, UK
Sharing sceneries of mountains and oceans that were either captured in Taiwan or from his imagination to yet another continent, Works of Wu Chi-Tsung’s will be showcased at Frieze London 2021. They will be presented along with creations of other young artists of Sean Kelly Gallery. The visually dynamic group of works will mark the gallery’s inaugural participation in the show.
It is noteworthy that the Drawing Study Series will be presented overseas for the first time. The Drawing Study 001 – Seascape LongDong captures actual real-time sceneries, the reprocessed videos show visual variations to create a perceptive confusion suspended between moving and static images. Although they originate from reality, what the artist offers are sceneries that can never happen in the phenomenal world. Meanwhile, three aluminum boarded Cyano-Collage Series will be presented.
About Frieze London
Frieze London is one of the world’s most influential contemporary art fairs, focusing only on contemporary art and living artists, and takes place each October in The Regent’s Park, in the heart of London.
Frieze London was founded in 2003. The fair is one of the world’s key contemporary art fairs, focusing only on contemporary art. The 2021 edition of the fair showcases over 160 of the most notable galleries from around the world.
Stand D15, Sean Kelly New York VIP預覽 2021年10月13~14日 公眾開放 2021年10月15~17日 地址 倫敦攝政公園內