Life Fantasy II: Jacky Tsai’s Southwest China Debut at Fosun Foundation Chengdu A new chapter following the Shanghai exhibition, featuring the debut of The Lonely Knitter.
17th Jan 2023
Following the success of Life Fantasy at Fosun Foundation Shanghai in 2021, Jacky Tsai brought a new chapter of the exhibition to Fosun Foundation Chengdu. Life Fantasy II marked his first major solo exhibition in Southwest China, inviting a new audience into a world where traditional craftsmanship, contemporary painting and digital animation meet.
Presented from 17 January to 9 April 2023, the exhibition unfolded across the foundation’s galleries through bold shifts of colour, scale and material. The exhibition film offers a journey through these spaces and the encounters between the works.
Life Fantasy II — exhibition film, Fosun Foundation Chengdu
The Lonely Knitter
A central moment was the first exhibition of The Lonely Knitter (2022), a sculptural textile work depicting the artist absorbed in the act of making. Rather than standing outside the image, Tsai becomes part of its woven construction: a maker who is himself made from threads.
A young visitor beside The Lonely Knitter at Fosun Foundation Chengdu.
Loose strands and balls of yarn extend the figure into the surrounding space. Seen from a distance, the work reads as a vivid portrait; up close, its individual threads reveal the patient physical labour behind the image. This movement between a complete picture and its smallest components gives the work an intimate, reflective presence.
The Lonely Knitter, 2022. Installation view.Detail of the threads and yarn that form the installation.
A world in many materials
Elsewhere, expansive paintings, sculptural forms and blue-and-white porcelain opened different routes through Tsai’s visual language. Birds, flowers and familiar cultural figures moved between densely layered narratives and quieter objects, encouraging visitors to look again at how an image is built.
Painting and sculpture in dialogue across the Chengdu galleries.Blue-and-white porcelain brings another material dimension to Tsai’s recurring skull motif.
Augmented-reality experiences added a further layer of movement, extending selected works beyond their physical surfaces. Together, the different media made Chengdu a distinct chapter in the evolving Life Fantasy project.
Visitors explore Life Fantasy II.
Life Fantasy II Fosun Foundation Chengdu 17 January – 9 April 2023 Exhibition photographs courtesy of Fosun Foundation Chengdu.
