5 Jul 2025 - 31 Aug 2025
Blank Canvas is pleased to present Tofu, Incense, and Sky, Taiwanese artist Charwei Tsai’s first solo exhibition in Malaysia. The exhibition features three seminal video works where the artist inscribes the Heart Sutra, a popular Mahayana Buddhist text that she memorised in childhood, on ephemeral materials as a reflection on impermanence. Lovely Daze, a curatorial journal published by Tsai since 2005 will also be on display during the exhibition.
The Heart Sutra, one of the most well-known Buddhist texts, speaks of the fundamental emptiness of all things. “Form is emptiness; emptiness is form,” it famously states. Behind its deceptively simple statements, it reaches for a range of complex truths about how we perceive the world, the interdependence between us and the universe, and the nature of impermanence.
As a child growing up in Taiwan, Charwei Tsai found herself memorising the 260 characters of the Heart Sutra and reciting them when she was afraid or seeking calm. Throughout her life, the artist has come back to the sutra, finding new insights and new comfort in it as she and the world around her have changed. It has also become a core part of her artistic practice, as she explores the spiritual concepts in the text and seeks to make them material.
At Blank Canvas, looking back at the three video works, “Tofu Mantra” (2005), “Sky Mantra” (2009) and “Incense Mantra” (2011), we watch as the artist inscribes the characters of the Heart Sutra on different objects: a delicate block of tofu, a fresh stick of incense, a mirror in which the blue sky is reflected. Her intricate calligraphy covers every inch of their surfaces. And then we watch as the words of the sutra come true. Tofu decays; incense turns to ash; the clouds rush past, dividing and reforming unendingly.
As these forms become emptiness, perhaps we are left with a glimpse of a deeper and more lasting truth. As the world around us changes more and more quickly, can we find moments of calm to reflect on these changes, appreciate the cultural and spiritual heritage we still have, and seek out wisdom on what is truly important? Tofu, Incense, and Sky offers us the time and space to start asking these questions. The closing ceremony of the exhibition on 23 August 2025 will feature two programmes: an artist’s dialogue between Charwei Tsai and Malaysian artist Ain, moderated by KY Leong, founder of Blank Canvas, and Edible Mantra, a live performance by Charwei Tsai.
Lovely Daze is a curatorial journal of artists’ writings and artworks published twice a year in limited editions by artist Charwei Tsai. The publication aspires to provide a platform for artists to present, first hand, their writings and artworks and to explore conversely how theories substantiate practice, and thoughts corporealize through writing and making art. The selection of works is based on concepts, techniques, and aesthetics in relation to the topics of each issue.
Collection of Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Tofu Mantra started as a writing performance, in which Tsai wrote the Heart Sutra in Chinese calligraphy on a fresh block of tofu. As the lines began smearing on the moist and squiggly texture of the tofu, so too did their meaning become indecipherable. Within ten days, Tsai observed the block’s material decay, the pearly tofu skin shrunk and rotted. This process was captured in a time lapse video, as the characters that made up the Sutra physically decomposed––their attachment to material form also the cause of their disintegration. The work thus uses an ephemeral material to reflect on the process of change when a spiritual belief becomes materialized.
Commissioned by Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation, Sydney, Australia
Extending her textual engagement with the Heart Sutra, Tsai placed a large mirror on the ground and recorded herself copying the scripture on its sleek surface. As the characters materialized, the mirror also recorded fleeting movements of Tsai’s surroundings: a puff of cloud passing, the sky churning a gray tempest, the artist’s white dress fluttering in the strong wind, her own body in parallel motion with the written words. These transient moments disappeared as soon as they appeared, thus alluding to the Sutra’s concept of impermanence: Through the void emptiness of the mirror, all things become interdependent.
In collaboration with Tsering Tashi Gyalthang
The time-lapse video of an incense burning was inspired by the history of Hong Kong as the “Fragrant Harbor” based on its large production of incense from locally grown sandalwood. For this project, Tsai sourced a large piece of incense from a local store on Queen’s Road West, an area in Hong Kong known for its sales of objects for religious and ceremonial offerings, and wrote the Heart Sutra on it. She then lit the incense on a mirror reflecting the sky as an offering to the city. The work encourages a moment of contemplation on the spiritual significance of the sacred text while the physical form of the text transforms into ashes and smoke revealing the backdrop of the city’s celebrated skyline. Through the opportunity of working within a local context in Hong Kong, Tsai expands on her exploration of making works of art as objects of meditation and tools for spiritual and social practice.