Charwei Tsai first came to public attention with her participation in the group show “J'en rêve” (literally ‘I dream' in French) at the Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain in Paris in 2005. In that show, she exhibited fresh tofu, mushrooms and iris flower, on which she had inscribed in black ink lots of tiny Chinese characters which were in fact a Buddhist scripture. The use of organic, thus often ephemeral and perishable, objects as a metaphor of the process of the transformation of life, and the act of covering them with calligraphy which, executed in a repeated, vigorous, and almost pious manner, gives off a spiritual feel, constitute the characteristics of Charwei Tsai's art from the beginning. We Came Whirling Out of Nothingness consists of a series of water colors on rice paper—and a new installation conceived for Art Basel Hong Kong—representing revolving and repeating circular and spiral forms. The artist quotes a poem of the Islamic mystic poet Jalaluddin Rumi, and talks about her fascination for the Sufi dancers' continuous whirling in a state of trance or ecstasy, but aren't nature around us and the universe also full of motifs and structures in circle and spiral? On these spiral-like circles, the artist inscribes the texts of the Heart Sutra which seem to spin and gradually dissolve into the outer sphere of the void. A poetic meditation on the nature of transience and impermanence of life, and the relationship
of man and nature.
蔡佳葳自2005年參加巴黎卡地亞基金
會一項聯展“我夢想”而開始獲得國際矚
目；她當時展出以黑色墨水寫上密密麻麻佛
教經文的新鮮豆腐、蘑菇和鳶尾花。使用多
半曇花一現、會腐敗的有機物為創作素材來
暗喻生命轉化的過程，以一再重複、積極、
甚至虔誠的方式進行的“書寫行為” ，流露
出一種崇高的精神性--這些特徵一直滋養著
蔡佳葳的創作。《自虛空中迴旋而來》包括
一系列以宣紙創作的水彩-以及為香港巴塞爾
藝博會構思的新裝置—呈現不斷重複、循環
的圓圈或螺旋形式。藝術家引述伊斯蘭神秘
主義詩人魯米的詩作，也談到她著迷於蘇菲
舞者不斷旋轉，直到陷入恍惚或狂喜之境，
但我們周遭的大自然和宇宙不也充滿了圓圈
圈和螺旋的圖案和結構？藝術家在這些螺旋
式的圓圈上寫滿了佛教《心經》的經文，文
字似乎不斷從中心迴旋拓展開來，最後逐漸
消失在外部的空無中。這件作品無疑是藝術
家對人生無常的本質以及人與自然關係的一
個詩性冥想。
