Deep sentiments leave traces
With the Lunar New Year approaching, Tsai was invited by the Chiayi County Government to take part in the 2018 Taiwan Lantern Festival. He returned to Taiwan from New York and threw himself into creating a large-scale work that requires mobilizing more than 100 people. He is distressed that many large-scale exhibitions generate a lot of trash after the event is over and waste resources. Therefore he aimed to make his lantern display into a collectible large-scale sculpture with artistic value, and he personally went to scrapyards to seek out materials for it, hoping in this way to express the values of “recycle, reuse, renew, repair, refunction.”
We go with Tsai to a metal window-grille workshop in Beigang. He rolls up his sleeves, puts on cotton work gloves, and excitedly discusses details of the work with the metalworkers, who are his fellow Beigang townspeople. Tsai says he certainly is able to produce meticulously crafted works himself, but nowadays he prefers to make opportunities to get more people involved and working together, to create things with greater meaning and value. This is also an inspiration that he got from nature. “In the past, everything was about success for myself, but at a certain point, you want to take the knowledge and skills that you have accumulated over a lifetime and spread them around—just as a tree, after absorbing light and the essence of the earth, at some point will flower or produce fruit and give shade and shelter to living things. Only this is a complete life history.”
This large sculpted lantern, which goes by the name Inexhaustible Vitality, not only uses a lot of scrap material, we can distinguish within it hints of many traditional utensils used in cooking, including ladles, pot lids, and oil strainers. After deconstruction, they are transformed into a new structure. Tsai Erh-ping says with delight: “This is a large pot cover for making rougeng [pork stew]. Rougeng is my favorite!” (This pot cover later becomes the roof dome of a castle.) These elements, which belong completely to his native land, the common people, and local life, are all present in this magnificent work.
Tsai Erh-ping states that the reason the family garden is called “Affectionate Garden” is to commemorate his parents, Dr. S.H. Tsai and Mrs. H.Y. Liao Tsai. The father studied in the Department of Medicine at Taihoku Imperial University (today the School of Medicine at National Taiwan University), but he chose to return to his poor and remote native place to practice. He devised a method of using needle aspiration to treat liver abscesses, saving the lives of about 3,600 people and making a great contribution to his hometown. The late Dr. Tsai’s given name, Shenhe, means “deep river,” and the garden’s Chinese name, Shen Qing Yuan, literally means “Deep Sentiment Garden,” which expresses the idea that “A river that flows with deep sentiment is sure to leave feelings.” Tsai Erh-ping is like his father.
Tsai’s wife, Cynthia Chuang, says, “Because many industries no longer operate in Taiwan, today although most public art is still designed in Taiwan, the work is mainly done in mainland China.” Tsai hopes to make the creation of the Lantern Festival work into a mass movement, with everyone from his hometown participating, using local materials and the help of local workshops, to reinvigorate local workers and resources and create new opportunities for this rural community. Like a gardener working with deep sentiment, Tsai is spreading seeds of hope, writing a new chapter for his beloved native place.
The family memorial hall, designed and decorated by the entire family, stands in the green garden owned collectively by the family members.
The works of Tsai Erh-ping encourage viewers to treasure nature and help them rediscover their inner child. (photo by Jimmy Lin)
Tsai Erh-ping's love for all animals and plants originated in his unique upbringing.
The techniques for the murals and sculptures on the upper floors of the family memorial hall originated in traditional handicrafts like Koji ceramics and cut-and-paste ceramic art. They were created collectively by the whole family.
The sculptures on the roof of the memorial hall symbolize the childhood times when their father lectured from the roof and their mother cared for the whole family.
courtesy of Tsai Erh-ping
Tsai settled in Long Island, New York, where he established the splendid Tsai Home Garden. (courtesy of Tsai Erh-ping)