Filling a gap in Taiwan’s art history
“What I really want to do is to enable these things [door god paintings] to one day take their rightful place and be seen in art museums,” says Tsai.
The first time Tsai worked on the restoration of traditional door gods after returning to Taiwan, it was only after carefully removing a dark layer of incense smoke residue that he saw the deft brushwork and distinctly vivid style of the master painter who had created them. But the artistic value of these magnificent works was underestimated, all because they have long been deemed to be merely “things from a temple.”
Knowledge of Taiwan’s native culture has long been inadequate. While the art history of Taiwan is still in a phase of uncertainty, determination of what is art lies in the hands of academic experts. But without theoretical underpinnings, the question of whether the works created by temple artists are genuinely “art” is still under discussion.
However, says Tsai, “I use the same methods to restore temple art as I use for acknowledged ‘artworks,’ and perhaps this can become a point in favor of confirming their status as works of art.”
Leo Tsai and the TSJ team, with the support of owners, aim to keep these artifacts around for the next 20 years. They want the next generation to have the chance to appreciate these masterpieces and get to know Taiwan’s homegrown temple art, rather than waiting until these artifacts are badly deteriorated, and all that is left is regrets.
“I hope that one day the children of Taiwan will be able to say who their favorite Taiwanese artist is,” says Tsai. This question, to which virtually anyone in Europe can give an answer, is still hard for people in Taiwan to respond to because art education is comparatively weak.
In 2018, Tsai accepted a commission from Longshan Temple in Taipei’s Wanhua District to restore the door god paintings on the doors of the temple’s front hall.
The paintings were made by the master artist Chen Shou-yi, who completed the work in 1966. But through the impact of moisture, sunlight, and incense smoke, the paintings have suffered varying degrees of damage.
Here in the cradle of Taipei’s history, in a space where people come and go, you see the TSJ team hunkered down in the restoration center installed in the temple’s basement. There they quietly concentrate on their work under the lighting, heads down and backs bent, engaged in a dialogue with time.
It is time that makes classics out of cultural artifacts. The TSJ team, meanwhile, are devoting their youths to extending the lives of these artifacts, in an endless tug of war with time. They are conservators who travel back in time.
Working with great concentration, art conservators mitigate the ravages of time.
Working with great concentration, art conservators mitigate the ravages of time.
Leo Tsai has set very high standards for art restoration work in Taiwan. (photo by Chuang Kung-ju)
Working with great concentration, art conservators mitigate the ravages of time.
These people are devoting their youths to extending the life of artifacts, in an endless tug of war with time. They are conservators who travel back in time.