Hsu Che-yu’s (許哲瑜) exhibit The Perfect Suspects (無姓之人) plays on the animated news of the Apple Daily and Next Media Animation. For Hsu, the “medium is no longer invisible, but an opaque intermediary faithfully transmitting the message,” where “an event becomes a product self-directed and self-acted by someone, a nameless character — the perfect suspects.” At the same time, his video and photography raise questions about the boundary between truth and fiction.
■ Digital Arts Center (台北數位藝術中心), 180 Fuhua Rd, Taipei City (台北市福華路180號), tel: (02) 7736-0708. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm
■ Opening reception and guided tour by artist on Saturday at 2pm. Until Oct. 23
Photo courtesy of Digital Arts Center
Yuan Goang-ming (袁廣鳴) examines what he sees as the temporal and positional registers of memory in Before Memory (在記憶之前), a solo exhibit at Tina Keng Gallery’s Neihu space. Working in video installation and photography, Yuan nostalgically recalls his childhood home, which serves as a starting point to expand on his ideas of place and remembrance. Yuan invites viewers along for the journey — one that enables us to explore our own pasts.
■ Tina Keng Gallery (耿畫廊), 15, Ln 548, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路548巷15號), tel: (02) 2659-0798. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 6pm. Until Nov. 6
Photo courtesy of 99° Art Center
Return to Innocence (歸真) is a solo exhibit of oil paintings by Chen Hsien-tung (陳顯棟). Chen’s work celebrates the beauty of nature with fine, elegantly textured paintings rendered with perfectly proportioned blocks of color reminiscent of abstract expressionism. The lines, shapes and colors woven into the painting are natural forms that suggest Chen’s “uninhibited innocence.”
■ 99° 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), tel: (02) 2700-3099. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6pm
■ Until Oct. 2
FIT: Fashionista in Taiwan (臺灣當潮時尚設計展) explores the broad range of Taiwan’s contemporary design styles and thinking under one roof, showcasing the country’s talent. The exhibit features work by veteran designers such as Jasper Huang (黃嘉祥) and Isabelle Wen (溫慶珠), as well as those like Chen Shao-yan (陳劭彥) and Liao Ying-yi (廖瑩怡), who now enjoy significant international attention.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA, Taipei), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號), tel: (02) 2552-3720. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Admission: NT$50
■ Until Nov. 13
A Fable of Japanese Contemporary — Ten Sols brings together some of the hottest artists working in Japan, including Yayoi Kusama, Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami and Yoshitaka Amano. The media range from oil and acrylic painting to video installation and sculpture.
■ Metaphysical Art Gallery (形而上畫廊), 7F, 219, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段219號7樓), tel: (02) 2711-0055. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6:30pm
■ Until Oct. 23
On the Edge Between History and Design — Exhibition of Taiwan’s 100 Years of Design (歷史與設計的交鋒 — 2011臺灣百年設計大展) is a poster exhibit timed to coincide with next month’s International Design Alliance (IDA) Congress. The exhibit is divided into three sections: Taiwan Poster Archives surveys the history of Taiwanese posters; Exhibition of Well Known Poster Designers presents a selection of posters related to culture, art and museums by international artists; and Design at the Edges contains 36 works from the forthcoming IDA. Combined, the exhibit aims “to provide a comprehensive view of the poster, past and present,” and to reveal the design link between Taiwan and the world.
■ National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館), 49 Nanhai Rd, Taipei City (台北市南海路49號), tel: (02) 2361-0270. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Admission: NT$30
■ Begins Friday. Until Nov. 13
Chiu Chien-ching’s (邱建清) ceramic sculptures fired in tones of ochre resemble the morphology of the rocks of the coast of Yilan where he grew up. With the Jialoushui Series (佳洛水系列), Chiu examines his relationship to the ocean and rocks by juxtaposing the motion of the former with the “solidified tranquility” of the latter.
■ Yingge Ceramics Museum (鶯歌陶瓷博物館), 200 Wenhua Rd, Yingge District, New Taipei City (新北市鶯歌區文化路200號), tel: (02) 8677-2727. Open daily from 9:30am to 5pm, closes at 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays
■ Until Oct. 2
Riverbed Theatre’s (河床劇團) Just for You exhibition at the Urban Core Art Block (城中藝術街區) consists of props, sets and video clips from the four plays in its Just for You festival, which was performed at Hotel Eight Zone (八方美學商旅) in Taipei last month.
■ Urban Core, 89-4, Zhonghua Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市中華路一段89-4號). Open daily from 12:30pm to 8:30pm
■ Until Oct. 2
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built