Looking up, the colossal stained glass windows in the cathedral looked magnificent. Dyed or painted in multiple colour, the small pieces of accurately cut glass had been assembled centuries ago into mosaics, held together by led wiring and now effortlessly switched on by the powerful, warm rays of the sun. Such was the fascination of a craftmanship going back hundreds of years that Jacky Tsai often found himself in churches and cathedrals as he travelled across Europe with his family in the summer of 2013. Inside, the bustling life of the external world evaporated and was instantly replaced by an overwhelming sense of peace and optimism; succumbing the audience to a colourful narrative on the windows. A story of a bygone era. One of true contrasts blending sacrifice and glory, heathens and believers, and the beauty in decay on the proximity of life and death. Within these thick walls, the dead were alive.

Back in London, Tsai’s artistic career was already flourishing. In early works such as Wave (2008), bonsai trees stretched their branches out of bento boxes, acrobats and cherry trees joined a fun-fair imagery, complete with a wonder wheel and a rescue helicopter; and palm trees, peacock feathers and a golden renaissance mirror found company amongst peonies and birds in an edition printed on silk titled Chinoserie (2009).

A meeting with Alexander McQueen at Central Saint Martins and a subsequent collaboration with the British fashion designer in 2008 would lead to Tsai’s famous skull image: the floral skull. A motif he has returned to time and time again throughout his practice. Tsai uses it to reflect on the irony of this image being a universal symbol of death, and a prevalent image in popular culture including fashion, design, and Pop art. The unique representation of the skull has always aimed at highlighting these contrasts - its contemporary popularity versus its traditional symbolism.

Central to Tsai’s practice is his use of breaking the divide between traditional Eastern styles and contemporary Western Pop art. The juxtaposition between images of Eastern and Western cultures has been key to his work; contemplating on his challenges of adapting to life in London, having moved from Shanghai as a student to study for his masters at Central Saint Martin. It is through a lens of personal life experience and cultural integration that Tsai constructs artworks that bring two cultures close up against each other through both his choice of subject and medium.

As part of a journey to explore new and old mediums, Tsai began investigating various traditional techniques including lacquer carving, silk embroidery, hand-painted porcelain and cloisonné. Over the years, his passion about craftmanship that goes back centuries - and how it has influenced Eastern culture through history - has been transformed into a mission to preserve, reinvigorate and promote such unique traditions through his own contemporary Pop art works. In 2013, Tsai was in the studio preparing on a series of new mediums and themes to be introduced at the artist’s solo shows in London. In the midst of energetic quarrels between Tarzan, King Kong, Superman, Monkey King, flying Apsaras, and other iconic characters, two works stood out. Two works that were offering a new interpretation of Tsai’s skull imagery.

The simplicity and beauty of Stained Glass Skull and Cloisonné Skull is staggering. Representing two exceptional crafts, Stained Glass Skull embeds the visual appearance of a sizeable window made up by thousands of tiny, tinted glass pieces; a novel experience that was spellbinding Tsai as he visited cathedrals during his summer travels in Europe. The skull draws on a gothic style from the 12th century and materialise with such vibrancy that it seems as fired up by sunlight coming through from the opposite side. Restricted to simple hues as red, orange, blue, green and white, the mosaic pieces shape into flowers, tomb chests and religious ornaments, that all together become a powerful skull image.

Cloisonné Skull is closely linked to Stained Glass Skull in its representation of a craft from Classical antiquity. The cloisonné technique was invented by the Egyptians, then perfected in the Byzantine era, where it was used for decorating metalwork objects by first creating compartments on the object using silver or gold wires, and then inlaying flat colours into them. Originally used for jewellery and small objects, the technique gained popularity in the East during the 14th century for larger vessels such as bowls and vases. Today, it remains a traditional craft and the practice is commonly associated with Eastern ceramics and imagery.

In Tsai’s rendition of cloisonné it reflects the beautiful patterns and typical Eastern motifs of flowers, koi fish and butterflies seen in traditional ceramics. The bold, flat colours reference the areas of enamel inlay seen in the cloisonné technique, but also replicate the vibrant immediacy of Western Pop Art. While this image of a single - somewhat intimidating - skull floating against a flat background has been seen in previous works by Tsai, he explores a new way of interpreting this image in Cloisonné Skull - looking back at an ancient craft, whilst retaining his own distinctive style and remaining true to the Pop-art aesthetic. Cloisonné Skull perfectly captures the core concepts of the artist’s work; a fusion of the East and West, past and present, beauty and decay.

Abstaining from beliefs or any associations with mortality, Jacky Tsai asks the viewer to take a closer look at the skull, and rather see it recreated with images of life, revitalised by flowers, plants, birds and fish.

Carved into lacquer in 2013, Stained Glass Skull and Cloisonné Skull were released as print editions in 2013 and 2018 exclusively by Eyestorm. Although similar in composition, the editions stand out as unique works on paper and are manually screenprinted with six and eight layers of ink. The dusty black backdrop absorbs the light with such effect that the contrast against the adjacent hues creates an immense vibrancy; almost having a back-lid effect similar to that of stained glass, or when light is filtering through a piece of cloisonné jewellery. Both editions of 60, each print is signed and numbered on front.

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