Wu Tung-lung’s (吳東龍) new series of paintings, collectively titled Gray Universe (灰色宇宙), continues the enigmatic patterns of his earlier geometric abstract work with muted coloring. The forms are reminiscent of the inkblots from a Rorschach test. A lecture on Wu’s work will be held at the gallery on Dec. 24 from 3pm to 4:30pm.
■ MOT Arts, 3F, 22, Fuxing S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市復興南路一段22號3樓), tel: (02) 2751-8088. Open daily from 11:30am to 8pm
■ Until Jan. 22
Photo courtesy of MOT Arts
Ansel Adams, Edward Weston and Edward Steichen are among the photographers whose work will be exhibited at American Modern Photo Exhibition (美國現代攝影), a show that offers a glimpse at the varying styles and evolution of early 20th-century photography in the US.
■ 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
■ Opening reception and lecture on Saturday at 3pm. Until Jan. 31
Photo courtesy of Han Art Agency
Photo Taipei is an international art fair focusing on photography and video. In its third incarnation, the fair brings together 15 galleries from Japan, France and Taiwan. This year features a section titled Taiwan Young Artist Selected Exhibition, which consists of a special on-site area given over to emerging artists. There will also be a forum discussing the history of photography in Taiwan and the current market for collecting video and photography.
■ San Want Hotel (神旺大飯店), 5F, 172 Zhongxiao E Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市忠孝東路四段172號5樓), tel: (02) 2577-1676. Admission: NT$200
■ Opening reception tomorrow from 7pm to 9pm. Friday and Saturday from 12pm to 8pm and Sunday from 12pm to 7pm
Life Goes On (永恆之續) is a solo exhibit of new paintings by Japanese artist Yasuko Hayashi. Hayashi’s paintings are subtle renderings of objects and places, infused with her own sense of nostalgia and what she sees as the spiritual resonance that underlies the material world.
■ Han Art Agency (涵藝術), 4F, 703 Huaping Rd Sec 1, Greater Tainan (台南市華平路一段703號4樓), tel: (06) 298-9129. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 7pm
■ Until Dec. 21
Crescendo Prelude (漸進式序曲) presents 25 photographs and two videos by Tseng Yu-chin (曾御欽). In this new series, Tseng, who participated in the 2007 Documenta 12 in Kassel, Germany, and is well known for his controversial videos and photography of childhood innocence, examines the daily lives of individuals at traditional markets and modern supermarkets.
■ 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
■ Until Monday
The National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung teamed up with Germany’s Art Museum Bonn to mount Videonale: Dialogue in Contemporary Video Art (當代國際錄像藝術對話). The exhibit presents 44 video works created over the past decade and selected for Videonale Bonn, a biennial of video art. Taiwanese artists include Chen Chieh-jen (陳界仁) and Tsui Kuang-yu (崔廣宇).
■ 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 through Sundays from 9am to 5pm. Admission: Free
■ Until Feb. 26
Nostalgia, regret and personal history are among the themes Chen Shun-chu (陳順築) explores in The Remnant Vision (殘念的風景), a solo exhibit of photography and image-based installation art ranging from his early works, which meditate on life, to his later spontaneous cityscape photography inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson’s concept of the “decisive moment.”
■ 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
In the mainstream view, the Philippines should be worried that a conflict over Taiwan between the superpowers will drag in Manila. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr observed in an interview in The Wall Street Journal last year, “I learned an African saying: When elephants fight, the only one that loses is the grass. We are the grass in this situation. We don’t want to get trampled.” Such sentiments are widespread. Few seem to have imagined the opposite: that a gray zone incursion of People’s Republic of China (PRC) ships into the Philippines’ waters could trigger a conflict that drags in Taiwan. Fewer
March 18 to March 24 Yasushi Noro knew that it was not the right time to scale Hehuan Mountain (合歡). It was March 1913 and the weather was still bitingly cold at high altitudes. But he knew he couldn’t afford to wait, either. Launched in 1910, the Japanese colonial government’s “five year plan to govern the savages” was going well. After numerous bloody battles, they had subdued almost all of the indigenous peoples in northeastern Taiwan, save for the Truku who held strong to their territory around the Liwu River (立霧溪) and Mugua River (木瓜溪) basins in today’s Hualien County (花蓮). The Japanese
Pei-Ru Ko (柯沛如) says her Taipei upbringing was a little different from her peers. “We lived near the National Palace Museum [north of Taipei] and our neighbors had rice paddies. They were growing food right next to us. There was a mountain and a river so people would say, ‘you live in the mountains,’ and my friends wouldn’t want to come and visit.” While her school friends remained a bus ride away, Ko’s semi-rural upbringing schooled her in other things, including where food comes from. “Most people living in Taipei wouldn’t have a neighbor that was growing food,” she says. “So
Whether you’re interested in the history of ceramics, the production process itself, creating your own pottery, shopping for ceramic vessels, or simply admiring beautiful handmade items, the Zhunan Snake Kiln (竹南蛇窯) in Jhunan Township (竹南), Miaoli County, is definitely worth a visit. For centuries, kiln products were an integral part of daily life in Taiwan: bricks for walls, tiles for roofs, pottery for the kitchen, jugs for fermenting alcoholic drinks, as well as decorative elements on temples, all came from kilns, and Miaoli was a major hub for the production of these items. The Zhunan Snake Kiln has a large area dedicated