Tseng Chien-Ying 腐竹 Pupa, 2026

In Pupa — a title that refers to the biological stage between larva and adult insect, when the body is enclosed in a protective shell before metamorphosis — Tseng Chien-Ying depicts a figure in profile, its body encased in a suit-like second skin. Blackened areas appear through openings around the eye, mouth, ear, and hands, evoking burnt flesh.

Tseng draws on traditional East Asian techniques, especially baimiao — line drawing without shading — and jiaocaihua, literally “glue-colour painting.” His visual language is also rooted in the murals of Dunhuang. Located in Gansu Province, China, these cave paintings contain some of the best-preserved examples of early Buddhist art, dating from the fourth to the fourteenth century. In Pupa, the figure’s exposed blackened areas recall the darkened bodies in Dunhuang murals, whose skin tones changed through the oxidation of leaded white paint, while also referring to those killed or injured in the 2015 Taipei water park explosion, one of Taiwan’s worst mass-burn disasters.

As in many of Tseng’s works, the image is not a portrait of a specific individual, but closer to an archetypal presence. The enlarged ear, rounded nose, solemn expression, and raised hands recall Buddhist imagery, while contemporary details — the suit-like second skin and safety pin — unsettle this traditional visual language.

Working across ink and colour on paper, as well as ceramic sculpture, Tseng brings traditional East Asian materials and aesthetics into dialogue with contemporary questions of the body, spirituality, and social tension. Drawing on historical techniques from across Asia, he places present-day subjects within forms that carry the weight of older artistic and religious traditions.