Approximately 150 artists from 30 countries will participate in Visual Attract & Attack (視覺突擊•動漫特攻), an exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, that seeks to introduce viewers to developments in contemporary art under the rubric of “animamix,” a portmanteau for comics and animation. Four thematic areas — fashion, mixed culture, superhero and animation — were chosen to illustrate the diversity and range of styles and influences.
The exhibition details developments in animation since 2004 while presenting international trends and regional idiosyncrasies through different points of view. From painting, sculpture and animation to interactive installations, the exhibit seeks to show how the animamix aesthetic can be realized in various forms, subjects and mediums.
Some of the more recognizable names include Taiwanese artists Yang Mao-lin (楊茂林) and Jeff Shi (石大宇); Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara and Yayoi Kusama from Japan; Indian art collective T&T; Patrick Bergeron from Canada; Alan Becker and Maya Lin from the US; Chen Zhiguang (陳志光) from China; and Han Hoogerbrugge from the Netherlands.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA, Taipei), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2552-3720
■ Until Jan. 31
The Story of Young Age (花漾•物語) is a solo exhibit by Taiwanese artist Huang Kuen-po (黃坤伯). Employing still-life painting as his primary mode of representation, Huang examines common psychological experiences of people in contemporary society. Themes include alienation, loneliness and anxiety.
■ Elsa Art Gallery (雲清藝術中心), 3F, 1-1 Tianmu E Rd, Taipei City (台北市天母東路1-1號3樓). Open Wednesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 7pm. Tel: (02) 2876-0386
■ Until Jan. 3
The emotional similarities between animals and humans form the underlying theme in Taiwanese ceramicist Lian Yu-pei’s (連瑜佩) solo exhibit The Running Beasts
(眾獸奔逐). From the cute (a child’s face on a feline’s body) to the macabre (a child’s head affixed to the neck of a plucked chicken on a cutting board awaiting the chop), the 14 ceramic sculptures on display are sure to provoke as many reactions as the emotions under investigation.
■ Aki Gallery (也趣), 141 Minzu W Rd, Taipei City (台北市民族西路141號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 6:30pm. Tel: (02) 2599-1171
■ Until Dec. 25
Sculptures of trees, paintings of nature’s many patterns, and knitted blobs resembling amoebas testify to Marvin Minto Fang’s (范姜明道) love of nature and the broad scope of his craft in his solo exhibit at Gallery 100. Similar to the environmental sculptures and installations of Tsai Ken (蔡根), Tang’s work combines interior design with the interests of an artist to create meditative spaces of handcrafted flora and fauna that are arranged like a Chinese garden.
■ Gallery 100, 6, Ln 30, Changan E Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市長安東路一段30巷6號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm.
Tel: (02) 2536-2120
■ Until Jan. 3
Taiwanese Clay, a Love of Teapot (臺灣土.百壺情), currently on view at Yingge Ceramics Museum (鶯歌陶瓷博物館), provides an in-depth look at art of tea ware in Taiwan and the methods and materials used to fashion these highly prized objects. The exhibition is divided into categories according to the characteristics of the teapots, including their glaze, shape and method of firing. Unusually for a museum, visitors are invited to have a closer look at the teapots by touching them.
■ Yingge Ceramics Museum (鶯歌陶瓷博物館), 200 Wenhua Rd, Yinge Township, Taipei County (台北縣鶯歌鎮文化路200號). Open daily from 9:30am to 5pm, closes at 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays. Tel: (02) 8677-2727
■ Until Dec. 20
The year was 1991. A Toyota Land Cruiser set out on a 67km journey up the Junda Forest Road (郡大林道) toward an old loggers’ camp, at which point the hikers inside would get out and begin their ascent of Jade Mountain (玉山). Little did they know, they would be the last group of hikers to ever enjoy this shortcut into the mountains. An approaching typhoon soon wiped out the road behind them, trapping the vehicle on the mountain and forever changing the approach to Jade Mountain. THE CONTEMPORARY ROUTE Nowadays, the approach to Jade Mountain from the north side takes an
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
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April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and