蔡佳葳個展：欲貪孰為本
Root of Desire - Charwei Tsai Solo Exhibition

展期│ 2018.12.08-2019.01.20
開幕 │ 2018.12.08 (Sat.) 4:30 p.m.
地點 │ TKG+（台北市內湖區瑞光路548巷15號B1）
贊助單位｜Ｖ-MODA、Lignell & Piispanen

(English version please scroll down)

睽違兩年的沉澱與遊歷，蔡佳葳個展《欲貪孰為本》以欲望為主軸，將佛學經典《維摩詰經》中的經典答辯作為引線，慧觀自身生命、自然和人性的關係。《維摩詰經》中由維摩詰回應文殊師利的提問：「譬如幻師，見所幻人。菩薩觀眾生未若此。如智者見水中月 。」的譬喻破題，指出世界的虛幻不實，再以此作為基礎抽絲剝繭地探答現象的根源。《維摩詰經》所發揚的「不二論」為亞洲歷史上第一本談論女權並強調性別平等的宗教著作，所謂「不二」意指平等且無差異，指出一切幻化與差異皆來自於心。本次展出的作品體現了蔡佳葳長年來對大小乘佛學的學習與探索，是藝術家同時展出個人精神性與社會實踐作品的嘗試。

蔡佳葳複寫《維摩詰經》文本的當下，藉由無常的軀體去記憶承載空性的文本，直到經文成為自身內涵，並將之付諸實踐。展覽第一部分由錄像創作《水月》（2017）拉起旅程的序幕，藝術家視月為尋求精神實相的隱喻，詩性地捕捉水中映月作為「不二論」中對於實相與虛相、俗世與樂土的辯證。隨之，藝術家在《欲貪孰為本》（2018）
中記錄橫跨廣闊沙漠的個人旅程，藉由謄寫維摩詰與文殊師利的一段對話，將欲望解構成沙漠中的無根之丘，最終文字消融在被吹散的黃沙之中，以尋找欲望根本和各種不同的欲望表徵。

而本次展出的繪畫「天女」系列則摘抄自《維摩詰經》的經典橋段，謄寫經文在維摩詰回應「菩薩觀眾生」的一片森綠中，描繪天女透過與僧侶的性別更易，傳達大道無男女之別的概念。此階段藝術家以自然界作為觀照的對象，層遞地道出以「不二」作為修已的佛學哲思，也可視為一種自我淨化的過程。

在旅程的盡頭，蔡佳葳以三件錄像作品：《尼泊爾奇翠巴蒂地震災民營之歌》（2017）、《聽她歌唱》（2017）及《高雄港漁工之歌》（2018）記錄人在世界各角落被迫遷移的足跡，透過尼泊爾地震災民的懷鄉呢喃、向英國尋求庇護的女性獨咏，以及高雄港移工的吟唱，將此視為社會及政經等資源不平等分配的結果。藝術家將人性作為觀照的對象，收集一系列在世界各角落被忽略的聲音。這些歌曲有可能是歌唱者家鄉的歌謠或是即興的曲子，透過歌唱者對歌詞理解所詮釋的方式，藉此產生超越種族、經濟、文化及宗教的連結。蔡佳葳的創作富饒佛學哲思與個人對生命的領悟，欲透過藝術影響社會，並盼求兩端點的平衡。

本次個展畫冊將會於展覽期間出版，特別收錄德國柏林馬丁-格羅皮烏斯博物館（Martin-Gropius-Bau Museum）總監斯蒂芬妮‧羅森塔爾（Stephanie Rosenthal）與蔡佳葳的對談，與曼徹斯特當代華人藝術中心(CFCCA)策展人Tiffany Leung的藝評文章。
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1 菩薩面對眾生如同魔術師面對他所幻化出來的人與智者見水中倒影，一切皆為虛相。

關於蔡佳葳

蔡佳葳出生於1980年，目前居住及創作於台北。她於2002年獲得羅德島設計學院工業設計及藝術建築史學位，又於2010年完成巴黎國立高等美術學院─塞納河計畫。她以地理、社會和精神為主題的作品主體，鼓勵觀眾在滿足于自身思考以外的參與，並同時關注於人與自然的關係、思考文化信仰、靈性和無常之間的複雜性。

蔡佳葳參與聯展和以個人計畫及展覽執行的雙年展：「蔡佳葳：Bulaubulau」，華人當代藝術中心，曼徹斯特，英國，2018；「水月」，當代藝術機構，維勒班，法國，2017；「聽她歌唱」，海沃藝廊，南岸藝術中心，倫敦，英國，2017；雪梨雙年展，2016；「簡單形體」，森美術館，東京，日本，2015，龐畢度藝術中心-Metz 分館，巴黎，法國，2014；「沙迦雙年展」沙迦，阿拉伯聯合大公國，2013；「橫濱三年展」，橫濱，日本，2011；「第六屆亞太藝術三年展」，昆士蘭美術館，布里斯本，澳洲，2009；「聖跡」，龐畢度藝術中心，巴黎，法國，2008；「藝術之溫度變化－亞洲新浪潮」，ZKM藝術與媒體中心，卡爾斯魯，德國，2007；「信念－第一屆新加坡雙年展」，新加坡，2006。在公共及私人收藏中皆可見到蔡佳葳的作品，包含澳洲布里斯本昆士蘭美術館、日本東京森美術館、美國舊金山亞洲藝術博物館、日本橫濱美術館、法國FRAC LORRAINE當代藝術機構和法國巴黎／美國舊金山卡蒂斯特藝術基金會、高雄美術館。

自2005年以來，蔡佳葳獨立出版雙年刊物《Lovely Daze》。整套《Lovely Daze》目前收藏在英國倫敦泰德現代藝術館、美國紐約現代藝術博物館、法國巴黎龐畢度藝術中心和巴塞隆納當代美術館。

藝術家個人網站http://charwei.com/

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Dates │ 2018.12.08-2019.01.20
Reception │ 2018.12.08 (Sat.) 4:30 p.m.
Venue │ TKG+（B1, No.15, Ln. 548, Ruiguang Rd., Neihu Dist., Taipei City 114, Taiwan）
Sponsor │V-MODA、Lignell & Piispanen


Charwei Tsai's solo exhibition, the Root of Desire, centers around desire and preludes to the classical maieutic discourse of the Vimalakirti Sutra. It is a profound and sophic exploration of the metaphysical troika encompassing her own life, nature, and humanity. This ancient spiritual text is one of the first recorded in Asia that discusses women's rights and gender equality. When asked "How should one look at a sentient being?" Vimalakirti responded, "the way a wise person looks at the reflection of the moon in water.[1]" The non-duality "propositioned" in the text alludes to equality and sameness. The exhibited works showcase Tsai's long-term examination of Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna Buddhism and is an experiment in exhibiting both her personal and social practice.

Transcribing the Vimalakirti Sutra, the artist imprints this vessel for emptiness upon her impermanent form until she becomes one with it. It is with this that the artist unveils the exhibition with a video work, Water Moon (2017). Nature as her metaphor, the artist captures the moon's reflection in a dark pool alluding to the simultaneous existence of reality and illusion or the mundane and the sublime. The exhibition moves on to a personal journey through a vast desert landscape portrayed in the new video installation, Root of Desire (2018). In this work, the artist inscribes a conversation between Vimalakirti and Manjusri that deconstructs desire into rootlessness. As the sand is scattered by the wind, the text also disintegrates. The work articulates the search for desire in its differing manifestations.

In a new series of drawings, "The Goddess" (2018), the artist inscribes a text from the sutra onto drawings of a forest. This excerpt derives from a notable passage in the sutra: a Goddess conducts a gender exchange between herself and a monk to illustrate equality between the sexes. "The Goddess" marks a transition from the more introspective works to the outward-looking projects on social change that mark the artist's recent works. The artist contemplates nature at this stage to exemplify the Buddhist philosophy of emptiness, which is the experiential understanding that all compounded things disintegrate.

Three videos installations of people forcibly scattered across the corners of this world mark the end of this journey. The three video installations, Songs of Chuchepati Camp, Nepal (2017), Hear Her Singing (2017), and Songs of Kaohsiung Migrant Workers (2018), capture people from all over the world who in face of displacement as a result of social, political, and economic injustice. The artist thus shifts her focus to humanity and collects a series of voices that have been overlooked in this world. Various songs expressing the universal sentiments of the desire for love and the fear for separation are vocalized by earthquake victims from Nepal; female asylum seekers detained in the UK from Iran, India, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Namibia, Sri Lanka, and other locations, as well as Southeast Asian and Africa migrant workers in Kaohsiung. Their voices bridge a connection that transcends race, economics, culture, and religion. Tsai's creation is redolent with ideas from Buddhist philosophy and her own understanding of life, aspiring to compel the masses and negotiate equilibriums between dichotomous extremes.

The solo exhibition catalogue will be released during the exhibition as well. It will embody interview with Stephanie Rosenthal, director of Martin-Gropius-Bau Museum in Berlin and essay by Tiffany Leung, curator of Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA) in Manchester.
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[1] The bodhisattva regards living beings the same way a magician regards the beings they conjure or how a wise person regards the moon's reflection in the water, to the bodhisattva, all are illusions.

About Charwei Tsai

Charwei Tsai was born in 1980 and currently lives and works in Taipei. She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in Industrial Design and Art & Architectural History (2002), and the postgraduate research program La Seine at L'École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (2010).

Highly personal yet universal concerns spur Tsai's multi-media practice. Geographical, social, and spiritual motifs inform a body of work, which encourages viewer participation outside the confines of complacent contemplation. Preoccupied with the human/nature relationship, Tsai meditates on the complexities among cultural beliefs, spirituality, and transience.

Tsai has had solo exhibitions and projects internationally including: Charwei Tsai: Bulaubulau Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA) (2018), Manchester, UK; Water Moon, Institute of Contemporary Art, Villeurbanne/Rhône-Alpes, France and Hear Her Singing, a project commissioned by Hayward Gallery at Southbank Centre, London (both in 2017); A Dedication to the Sea, curated by Eugene Tan at Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton, Singapore (2012) and Water, Earth and Air, curated by Suhanya Raffel at Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney (2009). She has participated in group exhibitions and biennials including Minimalism: Space, Light, Object at Art & Science Museum in collaboration with National Gallery Singapore, Scared Spaces at Rubin Museum of Art, New York (both in 2018); Biennale of Sydney (2016), Simple Shapes at Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2015) and Centre Pompidou-Metz, France (2014); Sharjah Biennial (2013), Yokohama Triennial (2011), 6th Asia Pacific Triennial (2009), Traces of the Sacred, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2008), Thermocline of Art: New Asian Waves at ZKM Center of Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2007), and the inaugural Singapore Biennale (2006).

Tsai's works are in public and private collections including those held at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Mori Art Museum, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Yokohama Museum of Art, FRAC Lorraine, Institute of Contemporary Art, Villeurbanne, Kadist Foundation, Uli Sigg Collection, and Faurschou Foundation, Copenhagen.

Tsai has also published a curatorial journal titled Lovely Daze twice a year since 2005. The complete sets of Lovely Daze are in the library collections of Tate Modern, London, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Pompidou Center, Paris, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Barcelona.

Charwei Tsai Official Website: http://charwei.com/