Japanese artist Tomokazu Hiroe arranges toys and dolls on blank canvases that are touched here and there with simple shapes in Lonely Park, a new series of paintings. Though they transport viewers back to the playfulness of childhood, Hiroe’s paintings draw on the “being and nothingness” of existentialist thought.
■ Asia Art Center (亞洲藝術中心) 177, Jianguo S Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市建國南路二段177號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6:30pm. Tel: (02) 2754-1366
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 3pm. Until Dec. 12
Photo courtesy of Asia Art Center
China-born, Taiwan-based artist Hou Li-ren’s (侯立仁) series of impressionistic paintings document his travels through India. The artist’s fascination with India’s pantheistic religious culture and its colorful devotees is expressed through pictures of temples, animal gods, angry Buddhas, girls in saris and elderly pilgrims. The dark hues of Hou’s paintings and his deep sympathy for the people of India reflect the artist’s view that “though the burden of life may be heavy, there always remains that enticing thread of tenderness and hope.”
■ 99 Degrees Art Center (99度藝術中心), 5F, 259, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段259號5樓). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2700-3099
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 3pm. Until Dec. 7
Photo courtesy of 99 Degrees Art Center
Somnambulism: Phantasmagoric Fugue (離魂症:幻影神遊者) brings together five Asian artists — Yao Jui-chung (姚瑞中), Yuan Goang-ming (袁廣鳴) and Wu Chi-tsung (吳季璁) from Taiwan, Jung Yeon-doo from South Korea and Pak Sheung Chuen (白雙全) from Hong Kong — working in video installation and photography. The exhibit examines trendy themes like “reality and virtuality, the illusory and the corporeal [and] time and space.”
■ Tina Keng Gallery (大未來耿畫廊), 15, Ln 548, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路548巷15號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm. Tel: (02) 2659-0798
■ A seminar hosted by the curator and artists will take place on Saturday from 3pm to 5pm. Until Nov. 28
photo courtesy of Tina Keng Gallery
Although International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women comes only once a year (Nov. 25), The Garden of Hope Foundation (勵馨社會福利事業基金會) wants to make every day violence-free with Violence Against Women 365 International Posters Exhibition, a traveling exhibit comprised of 365 posters from around the world.
■ Xinyi Public Assembly Hall, House A (信義公民會館A館), 50 Songqin St, Taipei City (台北市松勤街50號). Open daily from 9am to 5pm. Tel: (02) 2367-9595 X213 (ask for Mrs Lee)
■ Until Nov. 18
Der Horng Gallery is currently holding an exhibition of prints by high-profile Japanese and British artists including Damien Hirst, Takashi Murakami and Fuyuko Matsui.
■ Der Horng Art Gallery (德鴻畫廊), 1 Jhongshan Rd, Tainan City (台南市中山路1號). Open daily from 10am to 9pm. Tel: (06) 227-1125
■ Until Nov. 28
Tekazu-Kei: An Alternative Side of Nippon Art Today seeks to shatter the myth that manga and anime are the sum total of Japanese art. With a heavy emphasis on the craftsmanship that goes into artistic production, the group of 12 artists — whose work ranges from glass installation to hyper-realistic paintings of naked women — illustrates that some members of this generation of emerging artists still rely on the basics of sculpture and drawing to make great art.
■ 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 Nov. 28
Cathay United Art Center celebrates the opening of the Taipei International Flora Exposition (台北國際花卉博覽會) with an exhibit of impressionist and realist paintings by modern and contemporary masters with a floral and earthy theme. The exhibit also features a number of sculptural works based on the human form.
■ Cathay United Art Center (國泰世華藝術中心), 7F, 236 Dunhua N Rd, Taipei City (台北市敦化北路236號7樓). Open Mondays to Saturdays from 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2717-0988
■ Until Nov. 27
The fourth season of the AiR Taipei group exhibition begins on Friday at 7pm at the Taipei Artist Village with an opening show called Wish Wash (洗滌希望) by performance artists Ming Hon (韓佑明) and Howie Shia (夏昀皓). The show will be accompanied by the opening of an exhibit of work by Don Salubayba that compares the modern-day migration of Filipinos to Taiwan with the migration of Taiwanese Aborigines to the Philippines thousands of years ago. Other participating artists include Ya-chu Kang (康雅筑), Christian Nicolay and Sohan Ariel Hayes.
■ Taipei Artist Village Barry Room (台北國際藝術村百里廳), 7 Beiping E Rd, Taipei City (台北市北平東路7號). Open Mondays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm. Tel: (02) 3393-7377
■ Opening reception on Friday at 7pm. Until Dec. 26
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
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
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