Taking Time (慢拍) brings together photographers working in documentary and conceptual photography from Taiwan, South Korea, the US and Finland. The works range from Abelardo Morell’s exploration of the medium with camera obscura images to Antti Laitinen’s self-portraits. The other photographers are Lee Wen-cheng (李文政), Charles Labelle and Soo Kim.
■ Nou Gallery (新畫廊), 232, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市仁愛路四段232號), tel: (02) 2700-0239. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 3:30pm. Until Nov. 10
Photo Courtesy of Nou Gallery
Wu Chang-jung (吳長蓉) removed her nail extensions, put on her rubber boots and pitched in to help her parents tend their pig farm after they laid off their employees during an economic slump. Tap, Tap, a solo exhibit of video and photography, documents her experience in beautifully rendered kaleidoscopic works.
■ 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 will include a guided tour by the artist on Saturday at 2pm. Until Oct. 30
Photo Courtesy of Digital Arts Center
Recovering the Wet (濕而復得) is a series of photographs by Yang Wen-ching (楊文卿), who uses the wet-plate collodion process, which was introduced in the middle of the 19th century, to photograph still life images. Yang’s introduction says, “In today’s digital world, this ‘craft’ just might inspire a different way of thinking about images.”
■ 1839 Little Gallery (1839小藝廊), B1, 120 Yanji St, Taipei City (台北市延吉街120號B1), tel: (02) 2778-8458. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 8pm
■ Until Oct. 16
An Adventure Beyond Boundaries (視訊大盜之境外冒險) is a solo exhibition by Taipei Arts Award-winner Chang Teng-yuan (張騰遠). Using animation, viewing devices and highly stylized images, Chang turns visual signs into a kind of “creative nutrient,” allowing him to “split them into different perspectives.”
■ Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, 80 Meishuguan Rd, Greater Kaohsiung (高雄市美術館路80號), tel: (07) 555-0331. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 5pm. Admission: Free
■ Until Oct. 15
The Last Painting (最後一件繪畫) is a solo exhibit by Tzeng Yi-hsin (曾怡馨). Tzeng’s video and sound installations examine gender and racial issues within contemporary society and the manner in which people communicate.
■ Treasure Hill Artists Village (寶藏巖國際藝術村), 9, Alley 59, Ln 230, Dingzhou Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市汀州路三段230巷59弄9號), tel: (02) 2364-5313. Open Tuesdays to Fridays from 3pm to 10pm and Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 10pm
■ Until Oct. 30
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
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
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