Future Past, London
The Fine Art Society, London
30th Sep 2015
The Fine Art Society, London · September–October 2015
Future Past was Jacky Tsai’s first solo exhibition at The Fine Art Society on New Bond Street. Presented across two floors in partnership with Shanghai Tang, the exhibition brought lacquer carving, Suzhou silk embroidery, cloisonné and porcelain into a dialogue between Chinese literary traditions and Western popular culture.
In a contemporary interview, Tsai explained the title through the meeting of heroes from different times: futuristic figures and traditional Chinese characters collide within one image. The exhibition extended that idea to its materials, bringing historical skills into the making of contemporary narratives.
Characters Crossing Between Worlds
Superman, Wonder Woman and Captain America encounter figures including Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, and Zhu Bajie. They share landscapes and narrative settings drawn from Chinese pictorial culture, where affection, rivalry and misunderstanding become ways of exploring cultural exchange.
The lacquer carvings give these scenes a depth beyond their graphic outlines. Their surfaces ask viewers to move between the story unfolding in the image and the intricacy of its construction.
The Affair to the East
In The Affair to the East (2015), Wonder Woman and the Monkey King embrace at the centre of the composition. Conflict at the margins complicates the apparent harmony of their meeting. The picture sets an intimate relationship within a larger world of competing loyalties.
The Erotic Dream of the Red Chamber (2015) makes another unexpected encounter. Superman enters the world of the Chinese novel Dream of the Red Chamber, while Jia Baoyu becomes part of a scene of desire and jealousy. Recognisable characters allow the viewer to enter the story quickly; their unfamiliar relationships create the work’s humour and ambiguity.
Chinese Floral Skull: An Image Made in Silk
Chinese Floral Skull (2015) brought Suzhou silk embroidery into the London presentation of Tsai’s work. Flowers and foliage assemble into a skull, while the direction and texture of the stitching give the image a surface that changes with light and viewing distance.
The work offered a different kind of transformation from the lacquer narratives. Here, the shift happens between the overall form and its delicate constituent parts, joining mortality and natural growth within one carefully made object.
Cloisonné and porcelain extended the exhibition’s material range, including Cloisonné Skull and Chrysanthemum Play. The same artistic enquiry could take shape through enamel, ceramic, lacquer or thread.
Past Techniques, Future Possibilities
Future Past treated traditional craftsmanship as a resource for invention. Its contemporary characters and historical techniques did more than illustrate a contrast between old and new: their combination allowed each to be encountered differently.
Working with Shanghai Tang continued a relationship developed through Tsai’s 2014 collaboration with the brand. Within the gallery, the emphasis shifted to the individual artwork and to the stories that could emerge from an exchange between images, cultures and materials.
FAD — interview with the artist, September 2015
Wallpaper* — contemporary exhibition feature