The artist Patrick Palucki was a recent visitor to the Taipei Artist Village and is currently displaying one of his works at the German Cultural Center. The video-installation titled Monument will be a rear-projection on a piece of Plexiglas that juts out diagonally in the darkened room.
Palucki's artist statement says that viewers will see images from a documentary film of an underground nuclear test. The viewer looks at the skyline of a mountain, while in the image the date and time of the recording are shown.
Suddenly the viewer witnesses the mountain shaking and it begins to glow yellow. Giant clouds rise and eventually cover the whole sky. The time-display stops counting. During the whole scene the panorama is flanked by two figures that are incessantly moving.
Palucki studied in London at Goldsmiths College and at the University of the Arts Berlin. His works are shown at international festivals in Berlin, Barcelona, Basel, the US and Thailand.
The Taipei Artist Village will host a live performance by another of its visiting artists this weekend, Saturday at 7:30pm and at 9:30 pm. Pianist Thomas Kraft started playing piano as a young child and he prefers to play by ear rather than reading notes, so expect some improvised and jazzy moments.
Earlier in the day, from 2pm to 4pm, Hong Kong-based artist Sandra Tobias will give a talk about her work and the technique of egg tempera painting. If you would like to participate call (02) 3393 7377 X 219 to register.
And for you aspiring artists out there, the Taipei Artist Village also has applications for its international artist-in-residence program next year and the deadline is Sept. 20. The resident artist program was initiated in order to facilitate creative inter-cultural encounters and collaborations between artists in Taiwan and from abroad.
Artists from different disciplines such as dance, literature, fine arts and filmmaking are invited to apply and come together as a community in resi-dencies that are one to three months long. Download an application form from: www.artistvillage.org. Artists selected for next year will be posted on the Web site in November.
Another place worth checking out is the Nanhai Gallery, 19-3, Chongqing S Rd, Sec 2, Taipei (台北市重慶南路二段19巷3號). The gallery is part of a teacher's college so there are often student exhibitions, which means sometimes you may see dynamic artworks that succeed and other times you won't. But that's what gives this space charm and it really feels like an experimental workshop.
The atmosphere is congenial and relaxed and besides the big exhibition space and outdoor garden, there is a cafe on the second floor and a stage with musical equipment for live performances. In other words, it feels very much like a beatnik hangout.
Currently on view until Aug. 14 is a solo exhibition by Chao Hsin-yi (趙欣怡) with the title Surface Aspect Container Volume -- The Events of Hypothesis About Architecture in the City.
Chao who is interested in how architecture affects our lives, built a structure of scaffolding and the ubiquitous striped plastic sheeting to examine concepts such as interior and exterior, landscaping and architecture. He shows that the simplest of building materials can be used to explore and uncover more profound ideas.
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