Luscious Site 5 by Tsai Chih-Fen

Tsai Chih-Fen is a visual artist based in Taipei. Her long-term interest in the relationship between women and nature resonates in recent projects. By observing the struggles between modern industrialization and ecological preservation in Asia-Pacific countries, Chih-Fen’s work reflects the fragility of human existence and living conditions. Especially the interplay of deprived environment and nature regeneration that are related to the drive for gender equality.
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Apart from questioning the impacts on our living because of the deteriorating environment, she investigates the retaining walls in Taiwan with an attempt to provoke multifarious discussions on issues regarding the exploitation of nature due to political reasons. The nature is no longer the imaginary wilderness but mingled with a dominant social system, and the struggle is far beyond the nature conservation now turned to sustainable relationship between women and environment.
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Emphasizing digital media in her work, Chih-Fen integrates photography and computer graphic to reflect the tremendous destruction caused by complex social factors. The tension of the image coming from the nature and artificial manipulation confronts the displacement on identity provoked by value conflicts and
environmental degradation.

Tsai Chih-Fen was born in Taipei, and has worked and lived in the city. Trained as a visual artist at the Taipei National University of the Arts, she earned her BFA degree in Taiwan. After that, she attended Pratt Institute in New York and received MFA and MS in Art History, Criticism and Conservation. Emphasizing environmental installation and digital media in her current art practice, she critically examines the interplay of space and place that are related to people's cultural identity. She has accomplished many projects by applying estranging techniques to the thematization of human interaction with the environment that her oeuvres share.
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In order to provide an alternative framework to delve into contemporary environmental issues, she integrate photography, video, and installation to reflect the tremendous destruction caused by complex social factors. Meanwhile, she is searching for a counterpoint from diverse cultural phenomena, which might trigger reciprocal interactions between human and natural forces.
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She had completed many environmental projects, and participated in numerous artists-in-residence programs, including Arteles Creative Center in Finland; Arte Studio Ginestrelle in Italy; Vermont Studio Center in the U.S.; Gozo Contemporary in Malta; Anderson Ranch Arts Center in the U.S.; and Grass Mountain Chateau in Taiwan. She was a recipient of 2006/2007 Asia Artist Fellowship granted by Freeman Foundation.