Jackie Tsai: Pop-artist and patron to classic Chinese craft
- By Rory Howard
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 8, 2015
London-based artist Jacky Tsai unveiled new works at his first large-scale London solo exhibition at the Fine Art Society from Sept. 18 to Oct. 2, and showed that lacquer work is far from dead.
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London-based artist Jacky Tsai (Photo courtesy of Jacky Tsai and the Fine Art Society) |
Best known for the floral skull designs he did for British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, Tsai's latest works based on the four great classics of Chinese literature with American superheroes in the mix show Tsai's sharp wit and his ability to mix pop-art with traditional Chinese crafts in a way yet unseen.
The four works, "The Affair of the East," "Water Margin on the Fifth Avenue," "Romance at the Hamptons," and "Erotic Dream of the Red Chamber" are vibrantly coloured lacquer carved works that bring together characters from the four great classics and numerous characters from the Marvel and DC superhero universes.
With the mixing together of characters from distinct cultures and literature/comic books, the implicit message, if the viewer is looking for one, is that the super powers of China and the United States are becoming similar -- the growing middle and upper class of China, embodied in characters of the great classics, are a similar breed to those of the West embodied by the array of superheroes that feature in Tsai's works. But to Tsai any message that these four works in particular might contain is beside the point of the work and of Tsai's mission to bring the classics to the contemporary world, the past in to the present, and the dying craft of fine lacquer carving in to the modern.
“Lacquer carving has been really popular in the last few years,” Tsai told china.org.cn of the popularity of his own works, which also include chinoiserie, cloisonne, and print, but "there are only four or five masters that can do (lacquer carving) to the highest quality, and they're all over 65.” Tsai went on to say that these works are his way of bringing the past in to the contemporary, and a way of showing young Chinese craftsmen and artists that such techniques as lacquer carving can be just as beautiful when used in a contemporary way.
“Part of my mission,” Tsai told us, “is to rescue this beautiful craftsmanship.” With fewer and fewer people dedicating themselves to rising up to become master craftsman, Tsai believes that something needs to be done to show that such traditions need not be stuffy and traditional in their appearance.
His idea of renewing the crafts began with a bet a few years ago when Tsai was attending a good friend's wedding in Suzhou -- the town where his master craftsmen do their work. Tsai's friend's father is a collector of fine art, and it is some of the exquisite lacquer carvings Tsai saw that inspired him.
“I saw this beautiful lacquer carving with such vibrant colour,” Tsai says of first seeing and appreciating a piece of traditional lacquer work, “I realised that it would work as pop-art.” To his friends' disbelief that it was possible, Tsai told them that he needed only a few years.
A few years down the line, and with a sell out show in which all his most pop-art collection of narrative lacquer carvings were bought up in a few days, Tsai has proved that there is a market for lacquer work and other traditional crafts in the contemporary world, so much so that before our interview started, Tsai was busy on the phone discussing new commissioned works that utilise Tsai's vision and the craftsmanship of the masters.
With a demand for this traditional craft and the bright pop-art style, it is safe to say that Tsai is succeeding as a patron for the continuation of the lacquer-carving tradition.
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