HIGHLIGHT
Environmentalism seems to be all the rage in the country’s art circles, and now the National Museum of History is stepping up to the ecological plate with a group exhibition that focuses on global warming and its effects on the fragile habitats and migratory patterns of Taiwan’s birds. Global Warming From Artists’ Perspectives: Kenting’s Birds in Artistic Representation (全球暖化•藝術之眼—墾丁鳥類藝術特展) presents 90 works by Taiwanese artists rendered in various media including painting, drawing, computer-generated images, wood carving, metal sculpture and installation.
Divided into four sections — Evolution, Biological Diversity, Environmental Changes, and Ecological Ethics — the show highlight’s Taiwan’s ecological diversity and the looming tragedy if these creatures were to disappear because of climate change.
■ National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館), 49 Nanhai Rd, Taipei City (台北市南海路49號). Open daily from 10am to 6pm, closed on Mondays. Tel: (02) 2361-0270
■ Until Sept. 27
HIGHLIGHT
Lili Restaurant and Gallery in Tianmu has teamed up with the Community Services Center to bring art lovers and budding philanthropists The Morakot Relief Live Art Auction: Artists Beat The Flood. Lili will transform its second- and third-floor gallery space into a studio where 20 local and foreign painters will each work to fill a blank canvas throughout the day. The finished works will then be auctioned off in the same space. The event begins at 10am and the auction starts at 8:30pm, with all proceeds going to help the victims of Typhoon Morakot. Local music acts including the Muddy Basin Ramblers, A Moving Sound and Paiwan singer RS Legend, among others, will keep the painters at their easels and the atmosphere light and festive. Entrance to the event is NT$500, which includes one drink.
■ Lili Restaurant and Gallery, 760, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 6, Taipei City (台北市中山北路6段760號). For more information contact Prashantha Lachann at 0975-021-931. On the Net: www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=145174285239&ref=mf
■ Saturday from 10am to 10pm
Artists from the UK, the US, Japan and South Korea have been invited to join seven Taiwanese sculptors for Kuandu Museum’s annual Driftwood Sculpture Festival. The finished works will be displayed at the Taipei National University of the Arts’ Aigrette Down (鷺鷥草原).
■ Taipei National University of the Arts (台北藝術大學), 1 Xueyuan Rd, Taipei City (台北市學園路1號)
■ Until Dec. 31
Wood, steel wire and clay are among the materials used by Taiwanese sculptor and installation artist Tsai Ken (蔡根) in his solo exhibit The Great Form Without Shape (大象無形). Tsai Ken’s sculptures are meticulously crafted and rich in religious and philosophical themes.
■ Main Trend Gallery (大趨勢畫廊), 209-1, Chengde Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市承德路三段209-1號). Open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11am to 7pm. Tel: (02) 2587-3412
■ Starts Saturday
Emerging Taiwanese artist Wang Chi-sui (王綺穗) returns with a series of oil paintings in Detached Reality I (現實彌留). Wang’s intentionally blurry images of people wandering through cityscapes suggest a frenetic world that can be seen but never fully comprehended.
■ Jia Art Gallery (家畫廊), 1F-1, 30, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市中山北路三段30號1樓之1). Open Tuesdays through Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2591-4302
■ Starts Saturday
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