Cyanotype printing is an early photographic process that uses sunlight to create striking, deep blue images. While the technique has long been used for creative experimentation, Taipei-based artist Wu Chi-Tsung pushes the envelope of what this approach can do. His Cyano-Collage series of expansive, icy-blue landscapes is created using large sheets of crinkled paper and natural light. His incredible work explores how light, technology, and perception shape the way we see the world today.
The ongoing Cyano-Collage series commemorates Mr. Ni Tsai-Chin, a prestigious artist and art critic from Taiwan who died in 2015. When Chi-Tsung was a student, he worked as Ni’s assistant and remembers many long conversations about the possibilities of calligraphy and ink. They talked about everything from shifts in Chinese landscape painting during the Song dynasty to the influence of Western art in Taiwan. Chi-Tsung recalls, “His expanded horizons, insightful arguments, integrated knowledge of traditional and contemporary arts, and persistence in defending cultural subjectivity have nourished my art development since my novice periods.”
Building on his teacher’s approach to traditional ink work, Chi-Tsung combines classic cyanotype printing with folded and collaged xuan paper to create layered mountain scenes. The process reimagines the familiar brushstrokes of Chinese landscape painting through light-sensitive materials, giving the landscapes a contemporary twist. Each giant canvas looks like a snapshot of the deep ocean or a vast, cracking ice sheet.
Every one of Chi-Tsung’s works is unique, shaped by the always-changing conditions of natural light. He often jokes that the process feels like farming, returning each day to work with the sun and wait for light to land just right on the paper. He explains, “When you enter the sunlight, a cloud may pass by, the light changes; the wind blows the paper. Everything is shifting, completely beyond control.”
Talking about his process for the series, Chi-Tsung says, “As I create the Cyano-Collage, I often imagine tracing a mountain stream upward, climbing along cracks or ridgelines, and standing at the summit to gaze across the peaks.”
Check out Chi-Tsung’s Cyano-Collage series below and find more of the artist’s fascinating work on his website.
Wu Chi-Tsung’s Cyano-Collage series of expansive, icy-blue landscapes is created using large sheets of crinkled paper and the cyanotype printing technique.
The artist uses folded and collaged xuan paper and sunlight to create his layered mountain scenes.
Each giant canvas looks like a snapshot of the deep ocean or a vast, cracking ice sheet.
