Forever is Now, Kuala Lumpur
Qing Gallery

15th Dec 2021

QING Gallery, Kuala Lumpur · 2021

Forever is Now marked Jacky Tsai’s first solo exhibition with QING Gallery and inaugurated the gallery’s programme in Kuala Lumpur. Bringing together more than twenty-three artworks, prints and sculptures, the presentation introduced an artistic world in which Chinese imagery and Western popular culture meet through intricate surfaces, unexpected characters and transformations of familiar motifs.

Finding the Present Within the Image

The exhibition’s title places a large ambition within an immediate experience. Rather than imagining happiness as something secured for an indefinite future, Forever is Now turns attention towards a moment of looking: a detail discovered, a story recognised or an image that changes when seen again.

Developed in the context of the pandemic, the presentation brought themes of renewal and fresh beginnings into conversation with the value of slowing down. Its abundance of visual detail rewards time and attention, allowing different readings to emerge gradually.

From the Still Image to Augmented Reality

AR formed a further strand of the project. The studio’s preparations with ZHEN. brought together five works for AR presentation: Shanghai Tang Café, Broken Childhood Dream, Floral Horse, Four Horses and Tigers in Wonderland.

These animated extensions offered another way into Tsai’s imagery, connecting the physical work with stories unfolding on a phone. They belonged to the same developing enquiry as his crafted objects and paintings: how can an image retain its identity while finding a different life in another medium?

Seen together, the physical works and digital encounters made Forever is Now a presentation of continuity as well as new beginnings—an introduction to the artist’s practice and to the gallery’s programme.

AR experiences developed in collaboration with ZHEN.

We always dream to live a good life forever but what if forever is not a time capsule - Forever is Now.