Hung-Fu Tsai
蔡宏輔
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I was born to isolate; there's a monster within
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I'm Afraid of Bricks
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Objects Distanced from Myth
A Case Study of Museum Artifacts, Agency, and Rebirth through Reproduction and Craft
Hung-Fu Tsai
BA Thesis, Jewellery - Linking Bodies
Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam
Supervisor: Will Pollard
English
92 pages
13.6 × 10 cm
Risograph printed
Saddle stitched, softcover
Edition of 45 copies
€15
This thesis examines how artifacts shift between different states of life as they move from their original ritual or functional contexts into the museum, where they often become distanced, muted, or ghost like. Through case studies at the Musée Guimet, the Rijksmuseum, Madame Tussauds, the National Palace Museum, and the British Museum, the research explores how display mechanisms, vitrines, souvenirs, and technological reproductions reshape object agency and generate new afterlives.
Drawing on theories of agency, aura, and mediation, the thesis considers how reproductions can sometimes gain vitality and relational power beyond the originals they reference. Returning to craft as part of my own practice, it also considers handmade objects as another form of rebirth, rooted in material presence, bodily memory, and renewed relationships between objects and people.