Artist Creates Textured Landscapes by Wrinkling Cyanotype Paper

“Cyano-Collage 121,” Cyanotype photography, Xuan paper, acrylic gel, acrylic, mounted on aluminum board, 360 cm x 360 cm, 2021

Taiwanese artist Wu Chi-Tsung creates massive works of art that immerse viewers in abstract blue landscapes. The Cyano-Collage series is a new type of art form inspired by Shan shui, or traditional Chinese painting of landscapes, and photomontage. He mounts strips of wrinkled cyanotype Xuan paper onto canvas to create imaginary compositions reminiscent of mountains, oceans, abstract art, and other interpretations.

Originally from Taipei, Chi-Tsung received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Taipei National University of the Arts, and currently alternates working in Taiwan and Berlin, Germany. His artistic practice is based on merging art forms from the East and West, as well as contemporary and traditional. This love of juxtapositions can be clearly seen in his work from the Cyano-Collage series.

Chi-Tsung developed a technique to imitate the serene beauty of Chinese painting and the graphic effect of photomontage.”Cyano-Collage substitutes ink and brush strokes used in traditional Chinese Shan Shui with experimental photography to interpret the imagery of landscape in Eastern culture,” Chi-Tsung explains. To create these pieces, he starts by applying a photosensitive coating to Xuan paper and then exposing them to sunlight. This transforms the paper to give it a distinct blue coloring. Afterward, the artist selects numerous pieces of cyanotype paper, edits them, and mounts them on a canvas.

You can learn more about the artist via his website, and keep up to date with Chi-Tsung's latest art by following him on Instagram.