Transitioning from one year into the next in the Chinese calendar brings with it not only a change of the zodiac, but a shift in energy and good fortune. In the beginning of 2018 it was no different as the Year of the Rooster quietly gave way to the Year of the Dog. To Jacky Tsai, this particular lunar new year marked a milestone of his fast-moving career. On February 12th, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, or MMoMa, opened the doors to the exhibition ‘Fly Me to the Moon’. Tsai’s first major museum solo show. Grand galleries on two floors guided the viewer through a decade of works by the artist; from imperial-blue porcelains, lacquer and wood carvings, to recent print editions and his latest works on canvas created in his London studio.

Outside the walls of the prestigious museum on the hill of Gogolevski Boulevard the celebration continued. Less than two kilometres away at the GUM department store, Tsai had put on a spectacular public show of oversized Matryoshka dolls, nimble ballerinas, colourful Tetris blocks and golden Fabergé eggs; all displayed in a choreographed dance suspended from Shukhov’s metal-and-glass vaulted ceilings built in the late nineteenth century.

Twelve years earlier, Tsai could only have dreamt about a solo show of such prominence. After finishing his bachelor's degree in Shanghai, he moved to London to study at Central Saint Martins College of Arts, and it was in London that the works - that he today is well-known - started to emerge, forming narratives that were shaped by his years of growing up in Shanghai and influenced by the British capital outside the dorm room. Flowers, butterflies and a cockatoo perfected otherwise daunting skulls; chinoiseries were filled with acrobats performing at joyful fairgrounds accompanied by a gold-plated Ruben’s mirror, while guys in open shirts surfed on a bed of flowers over the Eastern landscape; and soon after, mythical figures from Eastern literature and comic book heroes of the West stood face to face in an epic culture clash. Whether carved in lacquer, printed on paper, or impeccably embroidered, his blend of imagery and choice of medium became key to Tsai’s practice.

Often noticeable in Tsai’s works, a deeper meaning that hints to the here and now satirizes the current relations between the East and the West. Whilst the messages are thinly-veiled, Tsai is not afraid to throw elegant political punches and it is this element of inspiring conversation that keeps his audience captivated and questioning what precisely it is that is going on in the exchanges between the characters in the image.

The scene in Fly Me to the Moon is a stunning illustration of Tsai’s talent for storytelling, showing the quintessential Marvel superheroes finding themselves unknowingly entangled by celestial apsaras. Respected and feared by gods and men alike for their skills and beauty, the apsaras reside in the heavens in Buddhist mythology, often appearing as graceful flying females with their power coming from peaceful aesthetics such as music, dance, beauty and holiness. An off-duty Batman, Superman and Green Lantern seem to have it all under control as they prepare to fly off and save the world of tomorrow to impress their female conquests. Perhaps all is not what it seems, and just like the apsaras, Tsai skilfully teases the viewer through a myriad of subtle messages.

Every action in the image springs from the white lotus tree in the centre; a tree with its soft white flowers symbolising Bodhi - a state of being awakened - and the mental purity leading to spiritual perfection. The apsaras wisely blend in amongst the white and pink flowers to project their virtues, posing a disguised contrast to the bold colours used in the outfits of the superheroes. On their voyage of discovery and a new life beyond, these romantic relationships between the Eastern apsaras and the Western superheroes may be pure in their hearts, but not necessarily aligned.

Fly Me to the Moon is a work that symbolises prosperity, wealth and progress, and was created at an auspicious time in the Eastern cosmology at the onset of a new lunar year. In the series on paper, Tsai decided to present three backdrops, each one layered by precious metals with different connotations. The 24-carat gold symbolises tradition and a rich culture, whilst the silvery palladium represent a promising future, one of modernity and sophistication. In between the two, a third background in rose-gold takes the characteristics of both, depending on how the light is angled onto the surface.

Originally conceived in lacquer with a gold background, the composition of the image in Fly Me to the Moon is traditionally flat to compliment the ancient Chinese craft which usually has every element in one dimension. The stylised flowers and birds clustered around the images reference the past in the use of a genre know as ‘Yotang Fugui Tu’, a decorative style usually seen in imperial paintings. The crafts going back centuries and the modern tales that shape the narrative of all Tsai’s works is evident in this series.

Manually screenprinted in eighteen colours, Fly Me to the Moon is available as three editions of the same image, each with different precious-metal leaf backgrounds. The 150 sheets of metal applied by hand on every single print makes each print a tribute to the craftsmanship involved. Fly me to the Moon (Gold), Fly me to the Moon (Palladium) and Fly me to the Moon (Rose gold) are part of the collaboration between Jacky Tsai and Eyestorm, and stand out amongst the thirty-four editions in total released exclusively between 2011 and 2018. The editions of 18 are signed and numbered on front.

To view the three print editions in further detail and to find more information about available works by Jacky Tsai, visit the artist’s page here.