Macau-based Taiwanese artist Cai Guo Jie is currently presenting his first solo exhibition in Macau, at the Ox Warehouse.
In Exhibition on Exhibition Cai presents a series of paintings drawn from a whole year’s worth of exhibitions at Ox Warehouse, in order to question the true meaning of it all. Cai points out that in the world of art, and Macau is no exception, more and more exhibitions are being organized in different forms.
For his own exhibition, he decided to use “exhibition” as the main topic. Using his established style of expression, he painted other artists’ exhibitions to use as the contents of his own. This approach corresponds with his metaphysical way of dealing with art. While other artists are busy thinking and figuring out different presentation forms for their works, Cai stands firm in his way of “Wu Wei” (Non-action).
Looking at Cai’s paintings based other artists’ exhibitions, one is reminded of the conceptual art master Joseph Kosuth’s famous piece One and Three Chairs. Cai’s work has its theoretical background in the ontology of “L’art pour l’art” (Art for art’s sake) and it reveals the artist’s insistent ideology in the purity of art.
In The Book of Change, it was written that “What is above shape is the way (Tao), what is below shape is the container (Qi).” Cai’s art has gone beyond the physical exploration of space and shape, reaching out to the wisdom and path of Tao, and turning into the visualization of the metaphysical state of art.
Cai graduated with a Master’s Degree in Arts from the National Taiwan University of Arts. He married his fellow art classmate from Macau and moved here in 2011.
In September last year, Macau AFA (Art For All Society) organized the artist’s first solo exhibition in five years at its 798 Beijing AFA gallery. The exhibition met with great success, and impressively, 70 percent of the artworks in the show were sold.
Before 2011, Cai’s work was mainly installation art. His thoughts and research were closely related to the notion of space and shape. From his previous use of the rather cold material of mirrors as installation elements to today’s use of vivid bright water colors in his paintings, the past four or five years of experiences have been like a spiritual journey for Cai, back to his own passion.
“Back then, I made installation art because it is a common and popular language used in Contemporary Art. But a remark by my teacher made me reconsider my orientation as an artist.”
Cai recalls that during his master’s degree presentation, his teacher pointed to him and asked, “When was the last time you felt touched by something?” The question launched him into a deep reflection of what he truly was. Since then, he has been determined to find out.
Somewhat surprisingly, the inner journey to his roots started with his move to Macau.
“I like this small city of Macau. I got a feeling that an immense treasure of culture was hidden here.”
Cai says that painting is a way for him to understand and explore a place. He began by painting a series of western style architectures in Macau. During this process that he describes as “the process of Alchemy”, he dissolved the visual codes of culture and reassembled them into a new way of being on his watercolor paper. It was a way to push beyond the physical state of the visible and thus turn it into the metaphysical.
His great passion and research into the antiquity of Han culture has also contributed to his way of thinking.
“So called ‘china’, actually came from the Song Dynasty’s Chang Nan people. They were world famous ceramic makers. I am very fond of their way of creating and living, that’s why I often put myself into their way of making art.”
Cai explains that he not only used particular ceramic colors in his paintings, he also used their visual language.
“The Chang Nan people developed an important visual language to observe the world – “Hieroglyphs”. I have many friends who liked to pick up stones from the riverbank, and we found that the shapes and patterns on the stones resembled that of an animal or a word. It was fascinating,” he notes.
“That was why I painted the shapes of the buildings in this way, into a state between the abstract and the figurative. I wanted to stop my brush just in time when it became recognizable. I hope when people look at these paintings, when they match the shapes to the actual architecture, they will come into contact with the old culture of these people, and the joy deeply rooted in their hearts.”