Page 47 - Studio International - March 1969

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
INCLUDING THE EARLIER WORK OF
TSAI

1928 Tsai Wen-Ying was born in Amoy, China.
Received his first lesson in Chinese brush-
work at the age of nine.
1939 Moved to Shanghai. Majored in chemical
engineering at Ta Tung University,
Shanghai.
1949 Moved to Hong Kong.
1950 Came to the USA as a student. While
pursuing his art studies, he studied
mechanical engineering at the University
of Michigan.
1953 Graduated as an engineer; came to New
York and worked as a consulting engineer.
1956 Began to work as an Engineering Project
Manager, in collaboration with leading
architects and architectural firms (such as
Mies van der Rohe, Gropius, and Skidmore
Owings and Merrill) in the design and con-
struction of atomic research labs, skyscrapers,
electronic data processing centres, fall-out
shelters, industrial and pharmaceutical
plants etc. During this period he con-
tinued his artistic training.
1957 Finished his formal art education, and began
oscillates about a mean position which is re- Berkeley's contention that things only exist in to experiment on his own.
garded as the level of stability. Stability in the the human consciousness. Tsai's works are 1961 One-man show of painting at the Ruth
biological sense is that of an oscillating system. more like biological symbiosis than they are Sherman Gallery, New York. An example of
This concept is at variance with the usage of like tangible objects; and if this is true, there Tsai's painting is shown in illustration no. 3.
the engineer, who identifies stability with are important implications for our whole idea 1962 Became a US citizen.
1963 Awarded the John Hay Whitney Opportunity
rigidity, and regards oscillation as a sign of of the nature of 'artefacts'. By kicking a stone Fellowship for painting. Resigned from his
instability.' Tsai's basic technique of vibrating you can maybe reassure yourself of its exis- engineering career to devote himself full-
rods (like Gabo's) presents the paradox that the tence; but it would not be so reassuring to kick time to art. He was now able to integrate his
vitalizing electric current on which the whole Tsai's steel rods, any more than the screen on engineering and artistic abilities. He soon
completed three-dimensional kinetic con-
artefact is dependent for energy is also a dis- which a film is being projected.
structions using vibrations, optical effects,
turbing force which stirs the rods from static I think of Tsai as manipulating a few sources radiant paints etc.
equilibrium. The ecology of these 'organisms' of energy with extreme economy—electric 1964 One-man show at the Amel Gallery, New
demands not only electric power but also the power, human sounds etc.—as a paradigm or York.
presence in their environment of a different homomorphism for all the infinitely various 1965 Exhibited his 'multi-kinetic wall' at the
Amel Gallery, New York. This is described
species—the human observer, with his curious resources on whose co-ordination the equilib-
by Willoughby Sharp in the catalogue as
optical system. The strobe-flashing technique rium of life and the environment depends. follows:
used by Tsai plays on our tendency to see Herein, surely, lies the true significance of the Tsai's Multi-Kinetics are dynamically
multiple constructions.
constant forms, and creates the effect of current movement towards reuniting the integrated
Employing thirty-two kinetic units, each
sinuosity peculiar to Tsai's work: an irregular, activities of artists and technicians. of which contains a configuration of multi-
asymmetric oscillation giving a taste of the Tsai is at present thinking about much larger coloured gyroscopic forms, Tsai has
complexity of organic life. So between artefact cybernetic sculptures designed for public created an active environmental field that
and observer is set up a kind of mutual de- places. Beyond this, it cannot be predicted could be infinitely extended. Each
pendence or symbiosis. In the structures that where his work will lead him. Which tech- motorized unit is a self-sufficient whole
incorporate reaction to spectators' behaviour, niques he will pursue, whether he will con- which, combined with similar units, pro-
duces a large-scale kinetic work of great
an additional factor of participation is intro- centrate on greater complexities with many
magnitude and power.
duced. The sounds of humans which the resources, or on greater intensities with few Photo 4 shows a smaller example of Tsai's
microphone picks up are like the electric resources— these are not questions that can be work in 1965.
current in a way: a force that disturbs the answered. His oeuvre is already impressive, 1968 (May-June) One-man show of Cybernetic
artefact's mechanical stability but is also an and deserves to be better known. (The May Sculpture, Howard Wise Gallery, New
York. The pieces shown in this exhibition
essential source of its artistic life or potency. 1968 show in New York received hardly any
are described in the preceding article.
This relationship between observer and arte- attention from the New York critics, but was 1968 Exhibited one piece of Cybernetic Sculpture,
fact is, of course, true of all art (not excluding widely recommended by word of mouth and using strobe lighting, in London at the ICA
Pol Bury's). Tsai heightens by abstraction the its closing date was postponed by the gallery exhibition 'Cybernetic Serendipity'. This
process whereby art depends on constant re- for a few weeks.) But, as he says himself, he is was the first group exhibition outside the
USA in which Tsai has exhibited.
freshment or re-creation by the environment. only scratching the surface of the possibilities 1968 Invited by Gyorgy Kepes to be an artist in
With the current switched off, or without the that exist. If we are approaching an artistic residence at the Center for Advanced Visual
participation of spectators, his objects would and educational revolution, it is encouraging Studies, M.I.T.
be as deprived of life as sea-anemones stran- to be able to point to a man like Tsai, whose Awarded second prize, together with Frank
ded in an empty pool. I would not like to get work is accessible to the public of today with- T. Turner who collaborated as an engineer,
in the E.A.T. competition for engineers and
dragged in here to the old philosophical con- out being limited by any of its preconcep-
artists: the prizewinning piece, illustrated
troversy about the existence of the 'external tions. There are more militant ways of changing here in illus. 1 was exhibited at the Museum
world'. However, it is of interest to recall the sensibility and fomenting revolution, but of Modern Art exhibition, 'The Machine', in
story of Dr Johnson kicking a stone to disprove Tsai's way is likely to be as effective as any. q New York.