Variation Xanadu is the last exhibition in the Curators in MOCA, 2005 series recently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art and is curated by Jason Chia-chi Wang
(
Wang recently curated the Taiwan Pavilion titled The Spectre of Freedom at this year's Venice Biennale. Wang who is more of a literary-based curator came up with the premise for Variation Xanadu based on the ideas put forth by Samuel Taylor Coleridge's opium-dreamt poem The Ballad of Kublai Khan which described the poetic space of this fictive place Xanadu. The theme of this unattainable, yet perfect space combined with the diverse artworks fit well together as there is an overall narcotic and hypnotic effect to what is on view.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MOCA
One fascinatingly hypnotic work is Hiraki Sawa's video projections of airplanes flying through the domestic interiors of an apartment, with planes taking off from an unmade bed or landing on a kitchen table to create an effect that is quite dreamlike and erotic.
The films by artistic filmmakers Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba and Werner Herzog are a must-see. Nguyen-Hatsushiba's Memorial Project Nha Trang, Vietnam: Toward the
Complex, for the Courageous, the Curious and the Cowards is a haunting monument. Filmed underwater, fishermen without any breathing apparatus push Vietnamese-style bicycle carts through the reefs and periodically come up for gasps of air, thus showing that the drive for survival such as breathing overrides the scripted acts of the performance.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MOCA
Time is a big theme in many of the works on view, but often containing a sense of wistfulness. Herzog's Ten Thousand Years Older is a compelling short 10-minute film documenting the discovery of one of the Amazon's last unknown tribes, and moves ahead to 20 years later, ultimately showing that contact with modern life led to the tribe's demise.
Tse Su-mei, won a Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2003 for his video The Desert Sweepers among her other works for the Luxembourg Pavilion. In the video, street sweepers futilely continue to sweep the sand in the vast limitless desert with no end in sight.
China-based artist Wang Jianwei (
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MOCA
Some alumni from the Taipei Biennial 2002, in which Wang co-curated, includes Runa Islam from England. Her double screen projection with a jazzy soundtrack hints at narrative and solemnly ruminates about aging and city life. Chen Chieh-jen (
abandoned spaces.
Kao Chung-li's (高重黎) installation of noisily running 8mm projectors show his hand-drawn animations that combine personal mementoes with images of war and destruction. Hou Tsung-hui (侯聰慧) has an intimate photo installation of psychiatric patients at the infamous Lun Fatang Monastery.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MOCA
And stay tuned because in October, MOCA will hold an international seminar entitled Exhibition Curating and City Marketing from Cultural Activities and world-renowned curators specializing in cross-culture studies or Asian cultural studies will participate.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located