“Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.” This is a commonly cited maxim from the Heart Sutra—an important text from Mahayana Buddhism generally dated to around 300 C.E.—and the theme of Taiwanese artist Charwei Tsai’s first solo exhibition in Malaysia at Blank Canvas gallery in Penang. Tofu, Incense, and Sky consists of three digital video art works—Tofu Mantra, Incense Mantra and Sky Mantra—along with the performance Edible Mantra and excerpts from Lovely Daze, a collaborative journal that Tsai has been curating since 2005. The contemporary artist inscribes the Heart Sutra, an important part of her heritage in Taiwan, onto a block of tofu, a stick of incense and a mirror facing the sky. As the words of the mantra rot, burn and fade, they come true, leading viewers to confront their impermanence and interdependence.

Born in Taipei, Tsai moved to New York to attend the Rhode Island School of Design to study industrial design and art and architectural history. She then studied at L’École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where she now lives and works, splitting her time between the French city and Taipei. Her work has been featured in biennales and major institutions across Europe, Oceania and Asia. During her time in New York, she volunteered at Tibet House, a non-profit dedicated to preserving and repatriating Tibetan art and culture. This exposure to Tibetan Buddhism would go on to influence her practice. As ash accumulates against the Hong Kong skyline, flies gather on tofu and clouds fade in and out of existence, Tsai prompts audiences to think about the rapid pace of change in the world, its inevitability and the necessity to find moments of calm to reflect upon it. The multimedia artist joined STIR to discuss her artistic and spiritual practice and what it means to highlight this philosophy through visual art. Edited excerpts of the interview below:

Srishti Ojha: Could you tell me about the Heart Sutra in your own words and what it means to you?

Charwei Tsai: For me, the Heart Sutra is a [breakdown] of our consciousness to understand our mind. We talk a lot about the ‘mind’, but what is it, where is it? This text looks into that—deconstructing what makes up our minds and what experiences suffering. It’s a way of understanding that is deeply rooted in the body and experience rather than measuring or numbers.

The Heart Sutra was discovered around the third century in India. What fascinates me about these ancient wisdom traditions is how they're still so relevant today.

Srishti: The Heart Sutra also dwells on the idea that ‘form is emptiness, emptiness is form’. What does that mean to you as an artist, to think of form as emptiness?

Charwei: For me, it's about interdependence. There’s a work where I draw a circle with ink on ice, then the circle slowly melts away. That’s both a void and a form at the same time; the void is making the form and vice versa. It’s about breaking out of the dualistic mindset that assumes things exist independently, because they don’t.

Srishti: What was the challenge of working in a digital medium while depicting ephemerality and the visceral nature of decay and loss?

Charwei: It was challenging at times because of the lack of control. For example, with the Sky Mantra, there were days when there were no clouds and it looked too flat—you couldn’t even really tell it was a sky. But the day I happened to be filming, there were clouds that were moving, forming and disintegrating. That’s exciting—finding out what you can and cannot control.

With the Incense Mantra, I filmed it with a Hong Kong skyline just because I happened to be staying there and it was where I could find the biggest, thickest incense for filming. At the time, it was one of the most prosperous cities in all of Asia and we would never have guessed all the events it would go through in the last five years. At the end, you see ashes forming in front of a city and see how that city is also changing.

The Tofu Mantra was the very first artwork I ever presented, so I was very young. I had just finished college and was working for an artist in Venice. I left the camera filming the tofu on time-lapse and [went to] Venice for 10 days. I didn’t expect the result when I returned—my house was full of flies and all these insects. It’s very fun what you can do with video.

Srishti: What drew you to the idea of impermanence?

Charwei: When I was growing up, the Heart Sutra was everywhere. Because it’s a very short text, only 260 Chinese characters, you would see it in shops, hanging as a scroll in restaurants, or even used in popular songs. So I had many memories of it, even though my family isn’t very religious. When I was younger, I would recite it to protect myself if I was really scared. I remember reciting [it] the first time I went on a rollercoaster [ride] as a child. The meaning keeps evolving.

Srishti: Is memory at the heart of your practice? How do commonplace objects like tofu or incense become a doorway to memory?

Charwei: I think it’s an age thing, where you start looking back into your childhood memories and asking: how did I become the way I am? Or why do I think the way that I’m thinking? So I’ve been introspecting a lot more.

The core of what I’m focusing on is still ancient wisdom traditions, how relevant they are and how they can be applied to contemporary art. Art, especially contemporary art, whether visual, musical or dance, etc., allows us to experience firsthand the truth of what is being taught.

Srishti: Could you talk about your performance, Edible Mantra, which is a part of this exhibition? What was it like to translate the thought and philosophy of the Heart Sutra into a performance?

Charwei: This was inspired by my teacher, who is a very important Buddhist teacher and also a Bhutanese filmmaker. The idea is based on breaking dualism—when you put the mantra in your mouth, when you taste it, you become one with it. The mantra becomes one with your being, your mind, body and speech.

Srishti: With an emphasis on tradition, ritual and community shifting with industrialisation, what role do art and artists play in mediating this changing balance?

Charwei: I think spontaneity is the answer. In big cities, we are losing spontaneity because we have to plan and fit into a certain mould. That rawness of emotion has less value now. I think it’s more present in feminine artistic expressions like poetry and dance. I am exploring how this tenderness towards our raw emotion and spontaneity has been suppressed over time and how it can be lost in modern life.

The modernised world is more focused on tangible materials and facts, but actually, our world is driven by emotion. Throughout history, a lot of wars and conflicts, etc. happened through very emotional decisions from the top level that have impacted our world. I think what’s interesting about trying to understand our consciousness is how we can understand these invisible forces that drive our world.

Srishti: Excerpts from your publication, Lovely Daze, feature in this exhibition too. Could you talk about its inception, the process of choosing and working with artists and how this has impacted your practice?

Charwei: Lovely Daze is something I do on the side, starting in 2005, the first year I ever exhibited as an artist. My first exhibition was at the Fondation Cartier in 2005 with Tofu Mantra, where I was part of a group of young artists from all different parts of the world. There was a very dynamic, young artistic community that I had never seen before, being so young and not having travelled so much. It inspired me to create a platform where artists can speak about their work in their own words. It becomes kind of a journal of my meetings with other artists, the topics I was thinking about and their different backgrounds and perspectives.

Srishti: You spoke about the Heart Sutra in the context of Hong Kong. What do you think the political stakes of these ideas of emptiness and impermanence are in a modernised world?

Charwei: Everything is very divisive right now and black and white. Working in collectives and in collaboration with people who are different in their views and backgrounds helps to break this dualistic mindset. What brings us together is a deeper understanding of our common humanity.

‘Tofu, Incense, and Sky’ will be on view at Blank Canvas gallery in Penang, Malaysia from July 5 - August 31, 2025.