Becoming Cyborg (成為賽伯格) presents photographs, interactive installation and video by six artists from Taiwan and Japan whose work touches on issues of genetic engineering, particularly cloning technology, and prosthetics. In an age of rapid scientific and technological change, curator Hsieh Hui-ching (謝慧青) says the clear separation between human and machine has become blurred, and that “everyone is transforming into a cyborg.”
■ National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (國立台灣美術館), 2, Wucyuan W Rd Sec 1, Greater Taichung (台中市五權西路一段2號), tel: (04) 2372-3552. Open Tuesdays to Fridays from 9am to 5pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 9am to 6pm. Admission: Free
■ Until Feb. 5
Photo Courtesy of Sakshi Gallery
German artist Gal Kinan explores Taiwan’s industrial economy in Factory-Plastic-Worker. Over the past decade, the East Asian country’s manufacturing industry has been relocating en masse to China, where labor is cheap and environmental standards poor. Kinan investigates how these changes affect the lives of Taiwanese workers at two
companies that make toys.
■ 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 Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 2pm. Until Jan. 8
The Dreamy Thorns (濡夢之棘) is a solo exhibit of new paintings by Wu Yung-chieh (吳詠潔). Wu’s sentimental works, rendered in light pastel tones with a manga style, attempt to universalize her own life and troubles.
■ Aki Gallery (也趣藝廊), 141 Minzu W Rd, Taipei City (台北市民族西路141號), tel: (02) 2599-1171. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 6:30pm
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 3pm. Until Jan. 1
Wang Te-yu (王德瑜) continues her exploration of space with a new series of large-scale fabric installations at Kalos Gallery. Wang’s work envelops the gallery, forcing viewers to question their sense of space; we don’t so much as look at her works, as we do enter a world created by them.
■ Kalos Gallery (真善美畫廊), 269, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段269號), tel: (02) 2836-3452. Open daily from 10am to 6:30pm, closed Sundays
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 3pm. Until Jan. 14
China-born, New York-based artist Tony Wong (黃榮禧) appropriates creation myths and Chinese poetry for his recent series of drawings, paintings and sculpture, which is currently on display at Tina Keng Gallery’s Neihu space. According to the press blurb, Wong’s work ponders the “solitude of existence, [the] origin of the world, [the] meaning of life, feelings of change, anguished romance and passionate desire between men and women,” to name just a few of the topics this artist muses over.
■ 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
■ Until Dec. 23
Dusklit Pond (暮光池畔) is a solo exhibit of haunting black-and-white waterscapes by photographer Yang Chin-sheng (楊欽盛).
■ Fotoaura Institute of Photography (海馬迴光畫館), 2F, 83 Chenggong Rd, Greater Tainan (台南市成功路83號2樓), tel: (06) 200-8856. Open Wednesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 8pm
■ Until Dec. 18
World Is Over? (末‧未2013) asks whether predictions that the world will end are a hoax. Thirteen artists from the Taipei-based artist collective Second Soul Graphic Arts Society “transcend preexisting concepts and logics” and employ interactive installations, graffiti art, sculpture and printing to ponder doomsday scenarios involving environmental catastrophe and man-made disasters.
■ 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. General admission: NT$50
■ Until Jan. 29
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and