About The Artist
Tristan Cai lives and works in Maryland and Singapore. He is a a tenured professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and holds the appointment of Steven Muller Distinguished Professor in the Arts. He is the recipient of the 2021 Maryland State Art Council Independent Artist Award winner, in the highest regional award category of “Notable Artistic Achievement”.
His works have been presented in solo and group exhibitions at Phoenix Art Museum, Noorderlicht Photography Festival, Netherlands, Kumho Museum of Art and GoEun Museum of Photography, South Korea, Singapore Biennale Parallel, National Museum of Singapore, Academy Art Museum, MD, Lucie Foundation's MOPLA, Los Angeles, amongst others.
Cai’s hand-made photography book has been acquired and exhibited by Center for Creative Photography juried by Darius Himes, International Head of Photographs at Christie’s and Rebecca Senf, Norton Family Curator of Photography at Phoenix Art Museum.
He is also a proud recipient of the Murphy and Cadogen Contemporary Art Award, and the San Francisco Art Institute MFA fellowship award. His works are represented in numerous private and public collections.
For a Better Tomorrow #2
By Tristan Cai
Archival photo print in white frame | Edition 1/3 | 110 x 80cm
Caption:
Persinger's experiment subject #2991, Imam of Sultan Mosque, Singapore, 2010
From the series, “Tales of Moving Mountains: Why Won't God Go Away“
Tales of Moving Mountains consists of a trilogy of works surveying the construct of the human-God relationship from different points of views.
Cai locates, collects and produces literary and visual artifacts that illuminate the interactions of science with religion, and the human condition in religious practice.
Its second pillar, titled Why Won’t God Go Away is a collection of images and historical documents that depict rituals and objects related to faith healing. These range from still lives of spiritually “healed” kidney stones, to portraits of people undergoing data collection experiments while standing in religious postures, to a “God Helmet” used to activate magnetic waves to the brain of a subject while artificially inducing religious feelings.
The extent and expanse in which we seek to understand and intellectualise the supernatural is an inquiring point behind the artist’s research efforts.
Shipping fee issued upon purchase.
By Tristan Cai
Archival photo print in white frame | Edition 1/3 | 110 x 80cm
Caption:
Persinger's experiment subject #2991, Imam of Sultan Mosque, Singapore, 2010
From the series, “Tales of Moving Mountains: Why Won't God Go Away“
Tales of Moving Mountains consists of a trilogy of works surveying the construct of the human-God relationship from different points of views.
Cai locates, collects and produces literary and visual artifacts that illuminate the interactions of science with religion, and the human condition in religious practice.
Its second pillar, titled Why Won’t God Go Away is a collection of images and historical documents that depict rituals and objects related to faith healing. These range from still lives of spiritually “healed” kidney stones, to portraits of people undergoing data collection experiments while standing in religious postures, to a “God Helmet” used to activate magnetic waves to the brain of a subject while artificially inducing religious feelings.
The extent and expanse in which we seek to understand and intellectualise the supernatural is an inquiring point behind the artist’s research efforts.
Shipping fee issued upon purchase.
From the same series
![For A Better Tomorrow #2: Imam of Sultan Mosque]()
![For A Better Tomorrow #3: Brother Paul Jean, Peris Chapel]()
![For A Better Tomorrow #4: Resident Monk of Singapore Myanmar Temple]()
