“The primary thing that I want people to do is look at them and go ‘how pretty.’ It’s like you heard a song and went ‘that sounds nice,’ and then you start thinking about the lyrics afterwards. So the first thing I want is that they are attractive to the eyes.”
This was how Mark Caltonhill described his unique and arresting rebus-like poems, which update the traditional Chinese spring couplet, or chunlian (春聯), with the help of a digital camera.
“Basically they are two stanzas, seven lines in each,” he said. “Seven ideas, seven concepts, seven lines of poetry in each of the two stanzas with lots of correspondence.”
More than a year in the making, the 10 couplets — collectively called The Malarkey Phenomenon — are currently on display and sale at Citizen Cain, a restaurant on Dongfeng Street (東豐街), which will host a reception for the show this Sunday beginning at 1pm. Interspersed among the couplets will be Malarkey’s Amusement Park, a series of playful poems on photographs.
The exhibition also marks the soft launch of Caltonhill’s self-published book of writing, also called Malarkey’s Amusement Park, as well as a call for poetry and verse for a forthcoming compilation of writing by expats living in Taiwan that Caltonhill plans to publish in the summer of next year (submissions can be forwarded to jiyue.publications@gmail.com).
Caltonhill, who has lived in Taiwan on and off since 1992, working as a performer, translator and writer (his book Private Prayers and Public Parades was reviewed on Page 18 of the Nov. 9, 2003 edition of the Taipei Times), employed his considerable knowledge of Taiwanese culture, Chinese characters (he has a master’s degree in Chinese from the University of Edinburgh) and his travels throughout the country to create the couplets, which were printed on rice paper and professionally framed as silk scrolls.
HuHu (湖滬), based on a trip Caltonhill took to Penghu (澎湖), is fairly representative of the hanging scrolls in how the traditional couplet form is altered (digital images replace stylized characters) to investigate or meditate on a variety of themes.
In the couplet, Caltonhill juxtaposes images of Chinese characters either standing alone or in profusion — in one line characters have been spray-painted on a plastic container, in another they are on a menu written on a wall — with images of Penghu.
The second character in the Chinese word for Penghu, hu (湖), forms the first line on the right-hand scroll. The top line of the left-hand scroll is the Chinese character hu (滬), which means weir.
“It is a poem working on two levels,” Caltonhill said. “Going to Penghu and seeing all these things and the human relationship with his environment.”
The visual language that gives the couplets meaning is also what makes them difficult to unravel.
“To decipher the poems you need to know where [pictures of] the characters were taken,” he said.
The references are indeed idiosyncratic, and unless you’ve been to the restaurant or prison wall the images capture, it’s difficult to see any immediate deeper meaning — though Caltonhill pointed out that this was his intention. Written proficiency in Chinese and a deep knowledge of Taiwan’s history are helpful when deciphering the scrolls, so if your Chinese isn’t up to snuff be sure to bring along a friend who can point out the homophones.
Although the “lyrics” are written in Chinese, the visual music reveals a playful understanding of a traditional poetic form that rewards repeated viewing.
Those wishing to submit poetry, lyrics or verse to Caltonhill’s publishing company JiYue Publications (霽月出版社), which he established as a result of his “frustrations trying to get books published in Taiwan and the similar experiences of other writers,” should send submissions to jiyue.publications@gmail.com.
EXHIBITION NOTES:
WHAT: A Double Dose of Malarkey
WHERE: Citizen Cain, 67, Dongfeng St, Taipei City (台北市東豐街67號). Tel: (02) 2708-4557
WHEN: Opening reception on Sunday at 1pm ; exhibit runs through Feb. 28, 2009. Citizen Cain is open daily from 6pm to midnight
We lay transfixed under our blankets as the silhouettes of manta rays temporarily eclipsed the moon above us, and flickers of shadow at our feet revealed smaller fish darting in and out of the shelter of the sunken ship. Unwilling to close our eyes against this magnificent spectacle, we continued to watch, oohing and aahing, until the darkness and the exhaustion of the day’s events finally caught up with us and we fell into a deep slumber. Falling asleep under 1.5 million gallons of seawater in relative comfort was undoubtedly the highlight of the weekend, but the rest of the tour
Youngdoung Tenzin is living history of modern Tibet. The Chinese government on Dec. 22 last year sanctioned him along with 19 other Canadians who were associated with the Canada Tibet Committee and the Uighur Rights Advocacy Project. A former political chair of the Canadian Tibetan Association of Ontario and community outreach manager for the Canada Tibet Committee, he is now a lecturer and researcher in Environmental Chemistry at the University of Toronto. “I was born into a nomadic Tibetan family in Tibet,” he says. “I came to India in 1999, when I was 11. I even met [His Holiness] the 14th the Dalai
Following the rollercoaster ride of 2025, next year is already shaping up to be dramatic. The ongoing constitutional crises and the nine-in-one local elections are already dominating the landscape. The constitutional crises are the ones to lose sleep over. Though much business is still being conducted, crucial items such as next year’s budget, civil servant pensions and the proposed eight-year NT$1.25 trillion (approx US$40 billion) special defense budget are still being contested. There are, however, two glimmers of hope. One is that the legally contested move by five of the eight grand justices on the Constitutional Court’s ad hoc move
Stepping off the busy through-road at Yongan Market Station, lights flashing, horns honking, I turn down a small side street and into the warm embrace of my favorite hole-in-the-wall gem, the Hoi An Banh Mi shop (越南會安麵包), red flags and yellow lanterns waving outside. “Little sister, we were wondering where you’ve been, we haven’t seen you in ages!” the owners call out with a smile. It’s been seven days. The restaurant is run by Huang Jin-chuan (黃錦泉), who is married to a local, and her little sister Eva, who helps out on weekends, having also moved to New Taipei
RSS