A Floating Life - Rhapsody & Rebirth, Taipei TAO Art Space
07th Nov 2022
Jacky Tsai’s first solo exhibition in Taiwan unfolded at TAO ART Taipei in two chapters: Rhapsody, from 21 October to 26 November 2022, and Rebirth, from 8 December 2022 to 14 January 2023. Following Life·Fantasy in Shanghai, Tsai rethought the presentation for TAO ART’s spaces, bringing painting, traditional craftsmanship, sculpture and digital imagery into a dialogue across the two installations.
Chapter I — Rhapsody
21 October–26 November 2022
Rhapsody centred on Parody of Jay’s Music (2019), commissioned by musician and collector Jay Chou. Developed through twelve months of exchange between the two artists, the eight-metre painting draws on more than sixty songs from Chou’s twenty-year musical career. Characters, architecture and concealed clues turn the music into a panoramic world that viewers can explore at their own pace.
Augmented reality and luminous effects introduced further ways of encountering the image. Alongside the painting, Tsai’s work across inherited craft traditions and contemporary media invited visitors to move between narrative, material detail and changing modes of perception.
A Floating Life at TAO ART Taipei — exhibition film.
Chapter II — Rebirth
8 December 2022–14 January 2023
Rebirth turned to the skull, a motif Tsai has explored for more than a decade. Rather than serving only as a reminder of mortality, its form becomes a vessel for flowers, cultural references and memories. The exhibition approached disappearance as a condition from which new images and possibilities can emerge.
Chinese Floral Skull in Rebirth: pattern, colour and embroidery give the skull a different material presence.
The presentation traced this evolving language from the Floral Skull associated with Alexander McQueen to more recent works including Anti-War Skull and Dunhuang Skull. Embroidery, screenprints, carved lacquer, sculpture and moving images offered different encounters with the themes of life, death and renewal.
Rebirth at TAO ART Taipei.
Works such as Unity in Diversity, Athena and Buddha and Star War extended the conversation beyond a single emblem. Across both chapters, images were continually translated into new materials, allowing cultural memory and inherited skills to remain active through change.
