CULTURAL aesthetics were displayed wall to wall at The Courtyard in Beach Street for the launch of Chao Kai Chih’s solo art exhibition titled “Material.Quality.Aggregation.” The launch event was held on July 13 as part of the George Town Festival programme, which spans the entire month of July each year.
Chao, a Taiwanese currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Seville in Spain, is celebrated as a visionary boldly venturing into an uncharted territory where East meets West in his artistic endeavours, synthesising creation with culture.
“I like to incorporate Eastern materials such as paper and calligraphy and infuse them with Chinese characters and Western brushstrokes,” the soft-spoken artist told theSun.
Fusing disparate worlds
The artist’s visually appealing works capture the essence of cultural exchange, bridging disparate worlds in a fusion of the physical and abstract. His art contrasts flatness with sculptural elements, abstraction with reality and hints at subtlety and poetry, delicate yet powerful.
Combining colours and objects and cutting across boundaries, both physical and through interpersonal experiences of navigating life, Chao’s art brings introspection into play and offers a different perspective from an almost rebellious point of view. Breaking stereotypes, to be exact.
Before pursuing formal art education, Chao honed his skills in a ceramics factory. While mastering Western artistry, he remained immersed in traditional Chinese themes, combining the old and new in a confluence of East and West, spanning classical to contemporary art forms. This duality, characteristic of the yin and yang, includes two- and three-dimensional pieces and integrates sound and light technology as well.
“Chao’s works are largely influenced by the sea. As you can see, there is a resemblance between Chao’s birthplace and Penang Island,” said Tourism and Creative Economy Penang State Exco Wong Hon Wai who officiated the event.
“To truly grasp an artist’s work, one must delve into his background and understand his life story,” he said, praising the artist’s exceptional skills.
Island of art
Born in Matsu in 1957, Chao desires to see his birthplace turned into an island museum. The archipelago, situated less than 20km off the coast of China’s Fuzhou City, is a stronghold of the Chinese Nationalist Party. It is also regarded as a “front-line” zone for Taiwan’s armed forces.
“We want peace, we do not want war and what we can do is turn Matsu into an art island,” Chao said, referring to the situation in his homeland.
Chao’s art pieces use mixed media, mostly discarded items, which augment his versatility and creativity. For this exhibition, he created 17 artworks, inspired and completed during his short stay in Penang, along with 26 smaller works contained within used cigar boxes.
In his description of “No Longer Drifting” (2024), he expresses the theme of someone, portrayed by the driftwood, who works hard and achieves success but faces criticism. “Generation after generation, the stories of martial heroes and rural legends remain consistent. Whether in different countries or different regions, people are always recounting the same stories and legends.
“From now on, the driftwood will no longer drift,” he said.
He added that the artwork, measuring 122cm by 366cm, is also a tribute to those who had settled down in locations far away from their birthplace.
Convergence of traditions
Chao has also enthralled art enthusiasts at the Sala Zuabaran and the Fine Arts Exhibition Hall of Seville in Spain. Back in Taiwan, his works are showcased in “Sentiments of Returning Home” at the Lienchiang County Social Education Centre. The pinnacle of his career, however, was his exhibition at Taipei’s Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall during its centennial celebration, in which his highly acclaimed oil painting collection depicting Matsu’s landscapes, titled “Northernmost Impressions: Matsu Sceneries in Oil”, was featured.
Since relocating to Spain, Chao has begun exploring the fusion of Eastern and Western art, culminating in works such as Cultural Exchange Between China and the West, in which cultural boundaries dissolve and traditions converge.
Reflecting on his experience in Spain, he said: “‘Toothless’ symbolises my struggles as a stranger in a foreign country.”
In his depiction, a dragon is stripped of essential attributes.
Chao’s latest works are priced between RM1,500 and RM55,000, depending on their size while the cigar box miniatures are priced at RM600 each. George Town Festival director Chin Teo was also present at the exhibition.
“The George Town Festival 2024, titled ‘Here and Now’, aims to reflect on the importance of celebrating the present moment and the rich tapestry of cultural expressions that define it,” Teo said, adding that Chao’s work embodied this theme, resonating deeply with the festival’s spirit. “Material.Quality.Aggregation.” by Chao will be displayed until this Sunday. The Courtyard is a new FnB and exhibition area at Beach Street.
