Tsan Wang

Tsan Wang is an artist and researcher born and raised in Sichuan, China. She spent her formative years living between Beijing and Tokyo before settling in Vancouver. She works and experiments with still and moving images, text, drawings, and field Recordings.

Tsan is interested in the ever-presence of nature, land, earth, and water regardless of human movement or intervention. Her ongoing research tries to create or unearth new ways to understand what is the decentralised relation between us and the otherworldly, a tangled and deeply intimate interconnection between disparate forms of existence. Tsan's artistic sensibility is characterized by inclusiveness and transience, inspired by the qualities of water. Through her work, she engages in imaginary dialogues about the form of self, longing and belonging, displacement, and impermanence, constantly evolving and transforming her artistic vision within contemporary feminist discourse.

Tsan has exhibited work in group shows in China, U.K., and U.S. She is currently based in London where she is completing an MA in Photography at the Royal College of Art (London, U.K). Previously she studied Fine Art & Painting at Emily Carr Art & Design University (Vancouver, CA). Her MA thesis titled “Undisturbed Water” is part of RCA’s permanent library collection.

Upcoming Exhibitions:

3 -9th of July, Off_RCA, Arles 2023 (Atelier Alonso, Arles, France)

13 – 16th of July, RCA Graduate Show, 2023 (Truman Brewery, London, UK)

In my artistic practice, I explore the interplay between absence and presence, the seen and unseen, and the tangible and intangible aspects of existence. Through visual experiments, I engage with ordinary objects, scenes, memory, psychological space, and our connection to nature. I aim to uncover transcendent qualities and create connections between entities in constant flux.

Creating a meditative environment is crucial as I delve into the intricate relationship between space and embodiment. Bodies depicted in my work undergo a transformation, becoming new species, while conscious observation shapes a mindful and open environment.

I also explore the non-human gaze and its intersection with my personal connection to specific locations, particularly bodies of water. Using photography, multimedia practices, and research, I investigate and reimagine the complex relationship between the non-human world and human agency, Elements like images, installations, and text act as intermediaries, highlighting the dynamic exchange between humans and the environment.

"The Murmuring" series meditates on the interconnectedness of diverse bodily forms of earthly agency, symbolized through visual inquiries across different locations. "The Altered Series" focuses on the overlooked connection between nature, urban landscapes, and personal experiences. By engaging with waste, I transform materials into new forms that reflect contemporary relationships. "Remembering Water," my installation, explores the fluid interchange between organic and synthetic elements, challenging traditional notions of seeing and offering a haptic visual experience. These series emphasize the potential for transformation and recombination, revealing the intensity of becoming and new forms of being.

Through my artistic practice, I aim to cultivate a deeper sense of care and responsibility for our relationship with the environment and each other. By sharing, unfolding, and connecting with multiple existences, I strive to raise awareness of the interconnectedness that we live to experience the world through diverse bodies, looking for meaningful relationships to unify us.

We become one another in a sensuous way.

Behind every image there lies another image that is in waiting, reflecting its own essence. The still image serves multiple implications, creating a realm where domestic objects undergo a transformation. They evoke the natural shapes of a mountain alongside a river, while also embodying the contour of a female body in labour.

The sculptural installation of domestic discarded objects takes on the form of a precarious, waste-shop-like structure and transmutes everyday objects into new forms of non-anthropomorphic existence both in the physical and psychological dimensions. This installation photographic work would also suggest the animacy and emotions embedded in the waste objects collected from my surroundings, inhabiting and intermingling with our culturally complex contemporary life. The implications of multispecies relations matter within the situated context. The waste material, imbued with transcorporeality, provokes questions of resource exploitation and the diasporic transmission in places.

Medium:

Photograph, Analogue, Installation, Moving Image, Sculpture, Collage, Text, Drawing

remembering water is a visual essay with light and water, a physical act of making a hydrological mediative installation, which is rooted in the centre of my personal journey passing between different places in China, Canada, and currently unfolding in London.

By combining light – the liquid essence in photography, and water – I create visual work that gathers together the natural, cultural, and social embodiments of water. The installation mirrors its subjects in complexity and abstraction. By unpacking the transcendent qualities of both the subject matter and photographic medium, I hope to reveal their potential possibilities for creating connections and interactions between multi-existing bodies in the state of constant flowing and becoming.

Medium:

moving image

Size:

single channel HD moving image, 9:33, dimensions variable

Tsan Wang

Medium:

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Royal College of Art