Chen Chieh-jen (陳界仁), Wu Tien-chang (吳天章), Daido Moriyama and Shomei Tomatsu are among 16 photographers showing their work in Documented, Doubted and Imagined Realities: Contemporary Photography From Japan and Taiwan (真實,試煉與魔幻:台日當代攝影聯展). Curated by Rudy Tseng (曾文泉), the exhibition of 70 photographs takes the end of World War II as its starting point and explores social, cultural and political issues in both countries.
■ Yi&C Contemporary Art (易雅居當代空間), 22, Ln 252, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段252巷22號), tel: (02) 2781-3131. Open Mondays to Fridays from 10am to 7pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 2pm to 6pm
■ Opening reception on Friday at 6pm. Until Sept. 23
Photo Courtesy of Yi&C Contemporary Arts Gallery
Ours. Karaoke is a video installation by Yu Cheng -da (余政達). Yu used a webcam to film his friends engaged in all manner of spontaneous and amusing performances at karaoke clubs.
■ Chi-Wen Gallery (其玟畫廊), 3F, 19, Ln 252, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段252巷19號3樓), tel: (02) 8771-3372. Open Tuesdays through Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Opening reception on Friday at 3pm. Until Sept. 30
Photo Courtesy of Yi&C Contemporary Arts Gallery
1+1: A Cross Straight, Four Regions Artistic Exchange Project (1+1. 兩岸四地藝術交流計劃) pairs up 16 emerging artists from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and Macau. The dialogue between artists from different regions is used as a starting point to examine issues of gender, identity, place and culture.
■ Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (關渡美術館), 1 Xueyuan Rd, Taipei City (台北市學園路1號), tel: (02) 2893-8870. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 5pm
■ Until Sept. 25
US artist Candice Ivy examines the imprints that different communities in Taiwan make on the landscape in Feral, a solo show of drawings in which she examines “Taiwan’s contemporary approaches to ‘green’ architecture,” according to her artist’s statement.
■ Barry Room, Taipei Artist Village (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), tel: (02) 3393-7377. Open Wednesday to Sunday from 11am to 9pm
■ Opening reception tonight at 7pm. Until Sunday
Fifteen commissioned works highlight British architecture, fashion and product design since the 1960s in Super Contemporary — Designed in London, which charts defining creative moments in the UK. Participants include fashion designers Paul Smith and Wayne Hamingway, Pritzker Prize-winner Zaha Hadid, product designers Ron Arad and Tom Dixon, and Thomas Heatherwick, who designed the UK Pavilion for last year’s Shanghai World Expo.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (台北市立美術館), 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市中山北路三段181號), tel: (02) 2595-7656. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm, and until 8:30pm on Saturdays. Admission: NT$30
■ Opens on Friday. Until Nov. 27
Lin Pey-chwen (林珮淳) questions the use of genetic technology to create “unnatural artificial life” in Eve Clone Series II (夏娃克隆系列 II). The bizarre, though skillfully rendered, sculptural installations of body parts were inspired by the Book of Genesis.
■ Galerie Grand Siecle (新苑藝術), 17, Alley 51, Ln 12, Bade Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市八德路三段12巷51弄17號), tel: (02) 2578-5630. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 6pm
■ Until Sept. 1
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50