The Quarantine Era, Hong Kong Contemporary by Angela Li, Hong Kong · 13 November–18 December 2021
13th Nov 2021
Presented at Contemporary by Angela Li in Hong Kong from 13 November to 18 December 2021, The Quarantine Era brought together Jacky Tsai’s responses to life during the pandemic. Chinese mythology, Western superheroes and everyday rituals collide in a world where even the seemingly invincible become vulnerable.
Working across lacquer carving, porcelain, embroidery and screen printing, Tsai uses humour and visual paradox to reflect on isolation, restricted movement and our shared dependence on one another. Augmented reality extends this dialogue, bringing traditional craftsmanship into motion.
Visitors at The Quarantine Era, Hong Kong, 2021
Quarantine Life Circus I
In this circular lacquer work, the superhero’s world has shrunk to the confines of a cage. Domestic routines unfold as a public spectacle, with spectators gathering around the theatrical enclosure. Its humour carries an uncomfortable reversal: the figure associated with limitless freedom has become an exhibit, caught between private life and public scrutiny.
Quarantine Life Circus I, 2020 — animated artwork
Guan Yu
Tsai brings the Chinese warrior Guan Yu face to face with Superman across a Go board, reworking the legendary scene of Guan Yu calmly receiving treatment to his arm. Chinese historical imagery and Western comic-book heroism share one stage. Their encounter turns physical strength into a question of endurance, composure and vulnerability—a resonant image in an era when familiar ideas of power and protection were being tested.
Guan Yu, 2021 — lacquer carving on wood panel
Visitors viewing Quarantine Life Circus I, Hong Kong, 2021Visitors viewing Guan Yu, Hong Kong, 2021
The Pandemic Series in Blue and White
The same sense of uncertainty takes on a different character in porcelain. Border Control, The Dance, PCR Test and Four Horses bring contemporary stories into the familiar cobalt-and-white language of Chinese ceramics. Ornamental landscapes and delicate painted surfaces frame scenes of restricted movement, bodily vulnerability and disrupted routines.
In PCR Test, the clinical act of a swab test enters a theatrical Chinese interior: even Superman must submit to a ritual of care and surveillance. Across the series, the contrast between traditional beauty and present-day anxiety gives the works their distinctive tension. The following selection brings together the porcelain works and the wider development of Tsai’s pandemic imagery.
Border Control — blue-and-white porcelainThe Dance — blue-and-white porcelain
PCR Test — blue-and-white porcelain
Four Horses — Porcelain and Moving Image
Shown together here, the blue-and-white porcelain and the later Four Horses moving-image work reveal how one composition can travel between traditional craft and digital animation. The animated version extends the series beyond the still image, continuing the dialogue between heritage and technology that formed part of The Quarantine Era.
Four Horses — blue-and-white porcelainFour Horses — moving image, 2022
