Touching the Earth: Charwei Tsai Solo Exhibition

Beginning from the island of Taiwan, Tsai’s work travels through the textures of language, the tactility of clay, and the gestures of painting, extending all the way to rituals performed in the Mongolian grasslands. In this exhibition, Tsai transforms her sensitivity to nature and spirituality into a quiet ceremony, allowing the works to become an intimate portal of listening to the land.

The center piece, “Kissing the Earth”, 2025, is a video that captures a powerful Shamanistic ritual performed by Sedbazar. In the video, the artist encircles himself with the three elements of water, air, and fire, represented by a rope, flour and lit cow dung in the midst of the vast Mongolian steppes. He then fills a copper vessel with cow dung, kindles it with fire, and wraps it inside a piece of animal skin tied by a rope. Then he swings the leather pouch around in circles with full body strength until

the smoke and fire elements gradually disseminate into space. The ritual completes with reverent prostrations made to the ancestral spirits and gentle caresses to the land.

In the interstitial spaces of the exhibition, “Ancient Desires”, 2025, a series of turquoise ceramic offering vessels, large and small, are placed intently throughout. This series of vessels is inspired by Tsai’s childhood memories of growing up in Taiwan in the 1980’s where the streets are filled with offering tables set up during full and new moons to appease wandering spirits and invisible forces for the collective wellbeing. The vessels in the exhibition are activated with medicinal herbs such as lotus seeds, goji berry, jojoba, peony root, dried chrysanthemum, and cinnamon as a gestural offering for those suffering from mental and physical unwellness. The vessels were made collectively with support from Versammeln Pottery Workshop in Taipei.

As a part of the offerings are a series of paintings painted ritualistically in circular motion with natural pigments made from the precious stones of lapis lazuli and amethyst, each believed to embody healing and calming properties. Hand-inscribed on the painting is a passage from the Flower Ornament Sutra, a seminal Mahayana text illustrating the multitudes and interconnectedness of the natural phenomenon.

Through her practice, Tsai continues responding to one of the most fundamental questions during this turbulent time: how do we reconnect with nature, with others, and with ourselves? This exhibition offers not only one possible answer, but also an invitation to begin asking the question anew.