CHEN Cheng-Tsai
CHEN Cheng-Tsai was born in Taipei City in 1966. He is a video, new media, and installation artist whose works are collected by the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe in Germany, and Dimension Endowment of Art in Taiwan. CHEN was the recipient of the Government Fellowship for Studying Abroad, sponsored by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan and the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), from 1993-1996.
- Location USA / New York, NY
- Year of the Grant 2002
- Residency International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP)
- Work Times Square Portraits
- Personal Website CHEN Cheng-Tsai's Personal Website
Video, photography, and mixed-media installation are my main focus in art. I emphasize the connection and interaction between art and society in my works, and express my concern for the society through applications of art. My ideas are ultimately realized via video, photography, and installations.
‘Portraits’ was the major project that I worked on during my residency at ISCP, New York. In this project, I incorporated methods of ‘fieldwork’ and ‘workshop’ to create an observational relationship between the ‘portraits’ and the viewers, slowly constructing an image/video art piece with social awareness.
My residency experience was like a soulful journey. I departed from the life that I was most familiar with, and set out to seek new possibilities in the practices of art. This experience became an important event to my artistic development and inspired me to produce several site-specific works. Without it, I could not have made the artworks that I had created then.
Artist residency programs are important platforms for exchanging information and ideas in the field of arts internationally. They help to create dialogue between artists, curators, art critics, collectors, and etc. from all over the world.
After I graduated from the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design in Germany and returned to Taiwan in the late 1990’s, I had begun participating in artist residency programs at Japan, New York, Austria, and Australia etc. I remember joining a Sunday salon organized by ISCP with the late artist Louise Bourgeois in 2002. The expressions on the great artist’s face, while talking about art with the participating young artists that day, were still crystal clear in my mind.