Image Map: Chang Tsai Retrospective Photography Exhibition (意象地圖-張才攝影紀念展) offers a solid overview of the artist’s documentary photography through 200 black-and-white photographs snapped from the 1940s up to the 1980s. Under eight separate themes — including Portraits of the Aborigines (原住民容顏), Sacrificial Pig Festival, Sansia (三峽豬公), Festival of Lord Dazhong, Sinjhuang (新莊大眾爺神明遶境) and Behind the Scenes of Taiwanese Opera (歌仔戲的後台人生) — Chang’s photographs document different aspects of Taiwan’s unique culture with a humanistic and sympathetic eye.
The exhibition includes Chang’s Leica camera, a tea leaf can in which he stored his film, photos from his life, a collection of original prints and his prized phonograph and vinyl records. Taken together, the exhibit offers an in-depth view of this pioneer of Taiwanese documentary photography.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM), 181, Zhong-shan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市中山北路三段181號). Open daily from 9:30am to 5:30pm, closes at 8:30pm on Saturdays. Tel: (02) 2595-7656. Admission: NT$30
■ Until June 6
An exhibit by Taiwanese painter Tsong Pu
(莊普) is currently on display at Main Trend Gallery. Tsong’s colorful geometric abstract paintings are meticulously composed of 1cm-by-1cm squares interspersed with swaths of paint that suggest rupture within an orderly world.
■ 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
■ Until April 24
Japanese artist Takafumi Hara collects the memories of ordinary people and distills them into paintings in Signs of Memory. After interviewing his subjects, Hara collates certain words and phrases that stand out in his mind and employs them as the starting point for his paintings, a whimsical cross between manga and surrealism. He then installs the paintings in the windows of the houses he has visited (here in the windows of MOCA). In this way, he develops a narrative of the individuals living in a region and a collective memory of the region itself.
■ 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. Admission: NT$50
■ Until May 5
Billed as a “dialogue between sound and painting,” Whispering in Chiang Mai Forest (清邁聲林) brings Taiwanese sound artist Wang Fu-jui (王福瑞) together with Thai painter Natthawut Singthong in a joint exhibition that attempts to capture the aural and visual beauty of northern Thailand.
■ Sakshi Gallery (夏可喜當代藝術), 33 Yitong Street, Taipei City (台北市伊通街33號).
Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 1:30pm to 9:30pm, Sundays from 1:30pm to 7:30pm.
Tel: (02) 2516-5386
■ Until April 24
Realm of Infinity (無垠鬱域) is a new series of oil paintings by Taiwanese artist Tung Hsin-ru (董心如). Tung’s paintings examine the heterogeneous co-existence of disparate natural and artificial forms through expressionist works rendered in earthy tones and infused with calligraphic and ink painting brush strokes that hark back to her training in traditional Chinese painting.
■ La Chambre Art Gallery (小室藝廊), 31, Ln 52, Siwei Rd, Taipei City (台北市四維路52巷31號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 9pm. Tel: (02) 2700-3689
■ Until April 9
Call for Submissions
The Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (KDMOFA — 關渡美術館) is accepting applications from artists working in any media to exhibit their works in the forthcoming Power Show, to be held on the museum’s first-floor gallery space. Works using innovative materials and demonstrating original ideas will take precedence during the selection process. Eligibility is open to all artists except students working on graduation exhibits. The finalist will be chosen by the end of June.
■ Contact Ho Ming-kuei (何明桂) at (02) 2896-1000 X2412 for further details or download application information from the KDMOFA Web site at kdmofa.tnua.edu.tw
■ Application deadline is May 15
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
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s
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