The 7th Taishin Arts Award (第七屆台新藝術獎) ceremony was held on Saturday afternoon at Taishin Bank’s swanky building on Renai circle in a spartan ceremony befitting Taiwan’s troubled economy.
Capital Ballet Taipei’s (台北首督芭蕾舞團) Surround (井) won the top award in the performance arts category and Wang Jun-jieh’s (王俊傑) Project David III: David’s Paradise (大衛計畫第三部:大衛天堂) took the first prize in visual arts.
Each award comes with a purse of NT$1 million.
The Taishin Arts Award is an annual competition that recognizes artistic excellence in two categories: visual and performance art. There is also a special jury prize. The jury, consisting of journalists, academics and art professionals from Taiwan and abroad, selected the nominees from performances and exhibitions that premiered in Taiwan last year.
Commonplace objects such as tables and boxes were employed in Surround as a means of investigating spatial and temporal relationships. The judges cited its accessibility to audiences and the emotional intensity of the show’s dancers as reasons why it took top honors.
Wang’s five-screen video installation Project David III: David’s Paradise was created in memory of Wang’s deceased friend and contemplates the vicissitudes of life. Art critic and jury member Chen Tai-song (陳泰松) said that the work, with its slow-moving frames that merge into a seamless whole, “leaves a lasting impression” on viewers and is “a classic that later artists will emulate.”
The jury award, which included a NT$300,000 prize, went to Wu Tien-chang (吳天章) for his staged photography series Shock. Shot (懾˙相).
The remaining short-listed artists included Chou Yu-cheng (周育正) for his work Superb Superficialness (很膚淺), Pan Ta-chien (潘大謙) for Flashover (閃燃 — 潘大謙個展) and Taiwan Field Factory (台灣田野工場) for Art Installation in Tree Valley Park’s Public Space (樹谷園區公共空間藝術設置).
Shakespeare’s Wild Sisters Group (莎士比亞的妹妹們的劇團) was nominated twice in the performance art category for Sylvia Plath (給普拉斯) and Listen to Me, Please (請聽我說—豪華加長版).
Other finalists include the Death and Love of My Mother — The Reminiscence of the Diva Daughter (凍水牡丹 — 廖瓊枝與臺灣國家國樂團) by National Chinese Orchestra (臺灣國家國樂團), Ju Percussion Group’s (朱宗慶打擊樂團) Percussion Happens Daily (擊樂進行式), The Sky Crisis (飛天行動─ 島國預言瘋狂喜劇) by the Party Group (同黨劇團), M.O.V.E. Theatre’s (動見体劇團) Fable to Be, or Not to Be (漢字寓言:未來系青年觀點報告), The Village (寶島一村) by Performance Workshop (表演工作坊), Reflex (Double C舞團—反射) by Wu Chun-hsien (吳俊憲) and Chou Shu-yi’s (周書毅) Visible City, People Filled with Air (看得見的城市—人充滿空氣).
MOCA, Taipei is currently holding an excellent exhibition on this year’s featuring contributions from each nominee.
The 7th Taishin Arts Award Exhibition runs until May 24 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA, Taipei), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號). Call (02) 2552-3721 for more information. The museum opens from 10am to 6pm, Tuesday through Sunday, and is closed on Mondays. On the Net: www.mocataipei.org.tw.
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
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su