Chinese Name: 蔡海如
Born: 1967
Birthplace: Taipei City (Northern Taiwan)
Did You Know That…?
In 1996, Tsai Hai-ru was invited to display her artworks at the inaugural exhibition of “228 Commemorative Exhibition – Sadness Transformed” at Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Through this exhibition, she sought to address human rights issue through artistic approach, publicly revealing her identity as a family member of a political victim during the White Terror period.
Born in 1967 in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital city, Tsai Hai-ru is both an artist and a curator. From an early age, she showed a keen interest in the arts. Tsai originally entered the Commercial Design Department of Ming Chuan University (銘傳大學) after taking the joint university entrance exam. However, driven by her ambition to seek other possibilities in arts, she retook the exam and later enrolled at the National Taiwan Academy of Arts (now National Taiwan University of Arts), where she studied traditional Chinese painting. After graduating, Tsai pursued further studies in France in 1991. While in Paris, she encountered contemporary art theories and experienced diverse artistic cultures, developing a fascination with the creations of Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte. At the same time, her engagement with feminism deeply influenced shaped her artistic philosophy.
After returning to her hometown, Tsai founded the Shin Leh Yuan Art Space (新樂園藝術空間) with other artists, providing a platform for art exhibitions and studio work. Her artistic practice focuses on conceptual art, accentuating the interaction of body, space, and subjectivity. After giving birth in 2003, Tsai paid more attention to feminist issues. For instance, she reflected the emotions and labor conditions of female caregivers through her artworks. As her career evolved, Tsai shifted her creating approach from personal introspection to examining the intricate interaction between individuals and social power structures. In 2009, Tsai started to producing works responding to the White Terror and the experiences of victims’ families.
Her father, Tsai Yi-cheng (蔡意誠, 1927-2016), was imprisoned twice during the White Terror. In 1950, he was jailed on Green Island for 14 years because of his involvement in “seditious organizations.” In 1976, he was arrested again on suspicion of being a communist spy. His identity as a political prisoner was a taboo subject within the family, and Tsai Hai-ru never spoke of these traumatic experience while growing up.
In 2008, Tsai began to comb through her father’s past and her family history. Few years later, she was gradually able to process the White Terror’s impact and memories related to her own family through her aesthetic interpretation. She also invited other descendants of political victims to participate in curating exhibition that explored unspeakable histories. In 2019, Tsai presented her installation works inspired by the publication “Prisoners outside the prison: Interview records of female family members of victims of the White Terror (獄外之囚：白色恐怖受難者女性家屬訪問紀錄)” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei City, Jing-Mei White Terror Memorial Park in New Taipei City, and Green Island White Terror Memorial Park in Taitung Township.
Tsai believes that art has the power to express the inexpressible. She hopes that, through artistic forms, she can offer opportunities for dialogue, deepening mutual understanding.
