ling-wen tsai

As a part of my solo exhibition, Quiet Voids, at SPEEDWELL Contemporary, Portland, Maine, I composed this conceptual score. The score was interpreted and performed by musicians Carl Dimow (on Shakuhachi, Concert Flute, Bass-Flute) & Nathan Kolosko (on Tarhu, Oud, Kamancheh, Tar) in 2022.

The work is a structured improvisation in five movements:

I. Searching (shakuhachi & tarhu) 

- prolonged tuning / in-tuning, dissonance to in-tuned, normal pace

II. Grounding / Land  (bass-flute & oud) 

- earthy, thick, rugged, low, long and slow, lots of space and pause

III. Into Voids (concert flute & kamancheh) 

- distanced, depth, deep into the space, eye-level, airy, spacey, medium pace

IV. Moving / Floating (concert flute & tar ) 

- horizontal and vertical movements, light, fast pace but not chaotic

V. Emptying / Formless (shakuhachi & tarhu)

- dissipating, disappearing to nothingness, silence, stillness...

A collaboration with musician Nathan Kolosko (on Tarhu) for Back Cove Contemporary Music Festival at Bob Crewe Gallery, Maine College of Art & Design, Portland, Maine, May 20, 2018

The work explores the connection and the synergy between visual art and music. Liminal 3 is a dialogue between disciplines, and a search for a shared language of expression.

performance at drawing room

performance at SPACE gallery, Portland, Maine

performance

Collaboration with Deborah Wing-Sproul

Overlap is a situation-inspired performance for "The Month of May", a series of exhibitions and performances in New York City, coordinated by Margaret Lee. Liam Everett curated a weekend of performances which includes our work. We wanted to respond to the specific space where the performance takes place—an abandoned office on the second floor of a commercial building on Canal Street in Chinatown. Using the vacant office as our starting point we decided to approach the architecturally challenging space in personal terms. Overlap continues our explorations of respective movement but this time we are conjoined and working with the backdrop of a vernacular-specific environment.

Performance: Friday, May 15, 8:00-9:30 / 179 Canal Street, 2nd Floor

Durational Performance at Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at Maine College of Art, 2005

pot of soil, boots, oil painting (Ling-Wen) by Painter Joe Begnaud

A performance for the 93rd Maine College of Art Commencement, Merrill Auditorium, Portland, Maine, 2004

Performance at ICA, Portland, Maine

frosted vinyl, acrylic paint, scissors, paper, 2005

Performance at ICA, Portland, Maine

postcard, 2001-2002

Fragile: Handle with Care started as a postcard mailing project. I sent several hundred postcards to people throughout the world. The card contained an image of myself wearing only a red "Fragile: Handle with Care" sticker across my chest. I later developed a durational performance, by the same title, in which I invited twelve people from all walks of life to display themselves in the context of a gallery. "Fragile: Handle with Care" stickers are used in our everyday lives as a reminder to be cautious while moving and shipping delicate items. I use this label to remind us of our human fragility, which is carried with us as we travel through this world, as parcels on a journey towards our final destination.

projected bar-code, recorded sound, 1999

Encountering mass-produced products labeled "Made in Taiwan"--in the context of the United States--inspired this performance. Made in Taiwan has become a connection, a connotation for home. It has signified the sense of closeness and nostalgia. I am trying to glorify and honor the label "Made in Taiwan" by displaying myself as a product of Taiwan. Instead of the idea of cheap badly-made stuff that might arise when people see the label "Made in Taiwan," my motivation was to express a sense of pride for my Taiwanese heritage.

performance

shredded English and Chinese newspaper, projected images, music by Kevin Volans, 2000

When an individual's linguistic and sociological environment is radically altered, a different set of values, expectations, and logic emerges. One's sense of the norm and the absolute are challenged. I have often felt foreign in both western and eastern society. This performance is derived from a sense of in-between-ness in my life. The migratory and transient nature of my existence has influenced my way of living, thinking, and working.

life-size doll box and accessory, 1999

I use Barbie, one of the ideal female iconography in American popular culture, to symbolize the social and geographical context that I situated myself in, and Ling-Ling, the Asian friend of Barbie, as a stereotypical representation of Asian female. The doll box functions as a vehicle of the migration from Asia to the United States. The change of one's locale has made one become exotic or the other. The question of exoticism and the sense of alienation and displacement were the inspiration for this performance.

 joss paper, projected painting, 1999