ling-wen tsai

Participatory Installation, Stools, LongWoods Preserve, Cumberland, Maine, 2025

Photos by Natalie Conn

1. & 2. Rising/Sinking: Boulders, wood, milk paint, plaster casts, 44 × 12 × 5 inches, 2024

3. Rising/Sinking: Chair, wood and milk paint, 12 x 12 x 5 inches, 2024

4. Rising/Sinking: Bench, wood and milk paint, 12 x 12 x 5 inches, 2024

5. Rising/Sinking: Tree, wood, milk paint, twig, 12 x 12 x 5 inches, 2025

6. Rising/Sinking: Tree (detail,) wood, milk paint, twig, 12 x 12 x 5 inches, 2025

While striving to create work that embodies the essence of quiet openness, these studies reveals my interest in the relationship and tension between the human and non-human world, and how they influence and impact one another.

The “boulders” in this installation were cast from a single mold at varied depths. This casting approach allows for the depiction of rising and falling sea levels, as does the choice of color for each panel. Beneath the seemingly peaceful water, a subtle unease surfaces slowly and quietly, if even perceivable.

Site-Specific Installation, Milk Paint, 850+ Pine Stacks, Mill Cove Greenbelt, South Portland, Maine, 2024

This research-based site-specific installation envisions the projected sea level rise for this section of the South Portland Greenbelt alongside Mill Cove’s saltwater marsh. Salt marshes are extremely vital to the ecosystem: they provide wildlife habitat, purify water, help prevent land erosion, and are one of the largest naturally occurring carbon sinks. However, they are fragile and rapidly disappearing due to sea level rise, storm surge, and development. This installation consists of 850 painted wooden stakes, each stake representing one of the different species of marine life in the Casco Bay Estuary. This project draws attention to the importance and vulnerability of salt marsh ecosystems. Sea levels in this area are projected to rise 3 feet by 2050. On January 13, 2024, the storm surge reached this level. We are “ahead of schedule.”

site-specific installation, film, paper, windows, Speedwell Contemporary, Portland, Maine, 2022

Our surroundings, whether natural or built, have a tremendous influence on our state of mind and have the power to shape our lives. I find myself longing for silence, stillness, and spaciousness. For many years, I have been striving to create work that embodies the essence of quiet openness.

 During recent winters, I have had the opportunity to spend some time alone in a rustic cabin in the remote Western Mountains of Maine. The seemingly endless vistas of snow-covered landscapes astonished me. Quiet and untouched white terrain, devoid of auditory and visual clutter, provides a spacious dimension where I am invited to enter and to just be.

This installation reveals my interest in the nature of seeing, and how our visual experiences influence our perception of reality. Working with pictorial depth and vision field, the work is a transformative threshold into a contemplative and boundless state of being.

participatory installation, light, stools, noise reduction headsets, dimensions variable, 2012

single channel video projection on floor (silent), dimensions variable, 2012

installation view, single channel video projection, 14'x8', 2007

post-performance installation, acrylic on frosted vinyl, 15'x2' each, 2005

Metamorphosis of Meditation: An evening of Improvisation explores the concept of collective consciousness as it applies to both the art of improvisation and practices of spiritual enlightenment through meditation. The sound/music for this performance was realized by the ISQ: Improvisational String Quartet (classical guitar: Nathan Kolosko, violin: Yasmin Vitalis, bass: Katharine Stambach, fretless guitar: Al Guesto). The work begins with solo improvisations by each musician, allowing me to develop a relationship and unique expressive language with them individually. Gradually adding additional performers the work grows into a collective improvisation. My response and interaction with the musicians was realized on six 15'x2' panels of translucent vinyl hung from ceiling to floor. The panels remained on display as a visual record of the live performance.

white vinyl flagging tape, dimensions variable, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, 2009

participatory installation, piano, two instructional scores, Institute of Contemporary Art at Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine, 2005

Silence/Listen is a participatory installation inspired by John Cage and the Fluxus movement. The installation consists of: two instructional scores ("Silence" and "Listen"), an upright piano, and a charcoal line drawing on the wall representing a blank music score. The score and the absence of participants represents a "visual silence." Viewers are invited to sit at the piano and play "Silence" or "Listen."

water & soil from the site, biodegradable pots, drinking glass, dimensions variable. Toshei Village, Tainan, Taiwan, 2008

bamboo sticks, gauze

wood, oil paint, dimensions variable, 1999

I use the traditional Chinese book format (wood or bamboo pieces bound with strings) to symbolize the vehicle of communication and the origin of civilization. On the "Book" (the surface of the wood pieces), the text is written in both Chinese and English to express my nostalgic longing. This piece was installed on a skylight. The act of looking up at the "sky"--the place we all share--is essential to the work.