Xiuching Tsay (b. 1993, Thailand) is a London- and Chonburi-based artist whose work merges painting, sculpture, and found objects to explore memory, spirituality, and human presence in spaces shaped by tradition and industrialisation. Drawing on her Thai heritage and coastal upbringing, Tsay transforms recurring shapes and motifs into hallucinatory, fluid narratives, where personal and collective memory intertwine with unseen forces. Her vivid, DIY-inspired aesthetic reflects a fascination with ritual, ephemeral objects, and the spiritual traces embedded in everyday life.  Trained at the London College of Fashion (BA, 2016) and the Royal College of Art (MA, 2019), her work has been shown in solo exhibitions in London, Chiangmai, and Tokyo, as well as in international group shows across Europe and the US. In this conversation, Tsay discusses how her upbringing, dual cultural experience, and fascination with memory and ritual shape her imaginative, otherworldly worlds.

“I think it is best to be honest with yourself and what you do. Don’t let the art world control you.”— Xiuching Tsay

CNTRFLD. You were born in Chonburi, Thailand, and later moved to London for your studies. How has your Thai heritage and upbringing by the Gulf of Thailand shaped the themes, imagery, and atmosphere of your work?

XT. My work usually corresponded to my writings in sketchbooks, and I found that they talk a lot to my childhood memories of my home, the atmospheres, people that were closed to me, and from 2000s to the presence, what have changed and maintain, those are contained in my work. It is like I am seeing it again and sometimes it brings questions to me. So, with the present perspectives, I recompose those pieces of memory, but somehow, they become a new, almost unfamiliar form.

CNTRFLD. You’ve described a slow, coastal childhood — watching sunsets, being close to nature. Looking back, how did these early experiences influence your early practice?

XT. I think I was probably wanting to recreate the peace of a child. Looking back in my early work, the paintings have a sense of longing, those imageries are something quite detached, unreal although I portrayed the natural elements. I guess because I created them as an adult. engaging with more information and responsibilities, an adult although seeing sunsets, it will be different from their childhood’s. And I think the hallucinated quality in my older work come from this. My new work still has some essence of this theme but has been developed with new methods and perspectives that changed.

CNTRFLD. You’re now based between Chonburi and London. What made you choose London as a key base for your practice, and how does the city continue to influence your work?

XT. I am currently based in London as my key base for now, partly because of the visa. Also, London has many libraries, and archives that I like to spend my time dive into them. The great influence for my practice, is probably walking around streets. I like walking and observe the ecosystems of small things. Things that cohabit in a space; the coexisting can happen by chance and seen by chance. Every time I look at them, the meaning changes. So, I get a lot of ideas of how compositions can enhance the work narratives from those things I found on street.

CNTRFLD. As a Thai woman artist working in the UK, how have your experiences of identity and belonging shaped your artistic voice?

XT. My artistic voice comes from my personal experiences that involved with places, Thailand was probably the place that I’m most attached to because I have been growing up with people there, my creativity has started from there even before I came to paint. But I think identity is a much more complex than the ‘Thai women artist’. There are so many layers of experiences that being put together. Some experiences maybe like other people in different places and some are very different. Like, I grew up with PC (personal computer) which was a big time for 2000s teenagers. However, personality and lifestyle are different and outside my home are also different. In UK there are churches, but outside my home in Thailand I see temples or shrines.

CNTRFLD. Having worked extensively in both the UK and Thailand, how do you compare the art ecosystems — in terms of opportunities, institutional support, and audience engagement?

XT. Since graduation, the UK has been my key working location, but I go back to Thailand every year. I have not experienced much Thai institutional support. I have been trying to find somewhere I can propose my project, but I find Thai art ecosystem a lot smaller. There are some but limited opportunities for emerging artists. When I visit exhibitions in Thailand, I notice audiences carefully consume the arts and very critical with the work they see, the same as the curation.

CNTRFLD. Your practice often combines animistic, spiritual, and hallucinatory elements with vivid colour and recurring shapes. Can you walk us through how a work typically begins and evolves in your studio?

XT. My work has a big influence from walking around on the streets or sometimes on mountains. I am attracted to ephemeral DIY monuments, murals or objects; they are assemblages that were made and left by people I never met. They carry an animalistic and spiritual quality; they have their own life and untold stories. These also remind me of ritual activities in some Buddhist cultures where people collectively tie their personally wishes (e.g. with ribbons) to sacred pillars. In my recent work, I have been exploring the spiritual quality of these gestures, researching the meaning of wishing, the transformative power embedded in such ritual acts, and the way DIY objects can time travel from its hidden past to the unpromising future. That’s the part I think has unintentionally formed a hallucinatory atmosphere to the work.

CNTRFLD. You’ve also integrated sculpture and found materials into your practice. How do these mediums expand or shift the narratives you create?

XT. I create sculptures in a DIY manner, an assemblage of existing materials in dialogue with the stories I have written. There is similarity between approaching sculptures, writing and paintings. Each begins with bits of memory, composition and resolving them with the limited human resources. This can bring new possibility and expand narratives. The materials come from many places, and each places carry meanings, streets, old treasure boxes, local markets or hardware shops. Throughout the making, I want to stay present with the materials, witnessing every changing form, and sensing how they actively communicate when interwoven with one another.

CNTRFLD. What current or upcoming projects are you most excited about, and how do they reflect where you are now in your artistic journey?

XT. I am currently making works for an upcoming duo exhibition in Jakarta this year with a talented artist from Bali, my first two-person show which I am very excited about. The body of work is quite personal, exploring themes of ‘Wishing’ as a kind of time-capsule. Each work revisits my past writings, and it is a good time to come back to open my old diaries. When I was making these works, I strangely feel resolved after having struggled with personal life, and I just want to keep making honest work in my journey

CNTRFLD. For young or emerging artists — especially those navigating different cultures — what advice would you give for building a practice that feels authentic and sustainable?

XT. I am an emerging artist myself. In my opinion, I think it is best to be honest with yourself and what you do. Don’t let the art world control you.

CNTRFLD. You’ve spoken about music, poetry, and film as inspirations — what’s something you’ve recently read, watched, or listened to that’s sparked new ideas for your work?

XT. I read manga before bed. One manga I found melancholic and beautifully written, is Chi no Wadachi (Blood on the tracks) by Shuzo Oshini. Many of Shunji Iwai’s films are also melancholic and haunting, it gave me strange feelings and made me revisit my own memories. Also, Endless poetry directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky is my favourite. Recently, I listened a lot to Mica Levi and Hide Matsumoto. His music was a big influence on my childhood and recently I watched his documentary and the translation of the lyrics. I think he was a unique artist that very true to his intuition. He made many different things during his lifetime.

CNTRFLD. If one of the creatures from your paintings could step into our world for a day, what would you imagine they’d do first?

XT. They are probably, to stay at my home and be my company.

About the artist.

Xiuching Tsay (b. 1993, Thailand)

Xiuching Tsay is a Thai-born artist based between London and Chonburi, Thailand. Her practice explores the traces of human presence in spaces where industrialisation and spiritual traditions coexist. Through painting and sculpture, she investigates memory, emotion, and the unseen forces connecting the internal and external worlds.

Her work is defined by hallucinatory fluidity, vivid colour palettes, and a DIY-inspired visual language. Recurring shapes and motifs are transformed into dynamic, open-ended narratives, where memories are experienced as living, shifting vessels rather than fixed records. Water, both as metaphor and medium, guides the gestural movement of her forms, enabling a dialogue between the spiritual and material dimensions.

Tsay draws inspiration from found objects, street offerings, and ephemeral cultural remnants, reflecting on how DIY practices mediate collective and personal memory. Her practice resists standardisation and erasure while exploring the interplay between individual experience and broader cultural economies.

She holds a BA in Fashion Illustration from the London College of Fashion (2016) and an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art (2019). Solo exhibitions include A Haze in Their Gaze (Daniel Benjamin Gallery, London, 2019), Discovery of the ‘I’s (Ne’Na Contemporary Art Space, Chiangmai, 2018), and 3331 Art Chiyoda, Tokyo (2018). Her work has also featured in international group exhibitions across the UK, France, Germany, and the US.

xiuchingtsay.com