Intimate Views (私房圖景) presents the work of renowned contemporary artists from Taiwan and China, including painting, sculpture and video installation by Chen Chieh-jen (陳界仁), Kuo Wei-kuo (郭維國), Liu Shih-tung (劉時棟), Xia Yang (夏陽) and Hsiao Chin (蕭勤)
■ Lin & Lin Gallery (大未來林舍畫廊), 16 Dongfeng St, Taipei City (台北市東豐街16號), tel: (02) 2700-6866. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 4pm. Until Jan. 22
Photo Courtesy of Eslite Gallery
Hometown Boy (金城小子), a large-scale solo exhibition of work by Chinese contemporary painter Liu Xiaodong (劉小東), brings together two of the artist’s recent preoccupations: those living on the margins of society and his hometown of Jincheng (金城), a small city in China’s Liaoning Province. Liu’s realist paintings depict the country’s momentous changes through images of his family members and childhood friends. In addition to several oil paintings, the exhibit includes close to 40 ceramic pieces, drawings and more than 200 diary entries, providing an in-depth look at the artist’s visual style and inner thoughts.
■ Eslite Gallery (誠品畫廊), 5F, 11 Songgao Rd, Taipei City (台北市松高路11號5樓), tel: (02) 8789-3388 X1588. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Jan. 15
Photo Courtesy of National Museum of History
Japanese filmmaker and composer Takagi Masakatsu fuses electro-acoustic music with surreal videos of regular folks in Ymene, his first solo exhibit in Taiwan. Though some critics have called his work slightly nostalgic, the psychedelic aspect of the videos is far from sentimental.
■ Agora Art Space (藝譔堂), 104, Ln 155, Dunhua N Rd, Taipei City (台北市敦化北路155巷104號), tel: (02) 8712-0178. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Dec. 31
With Christmas just a few days away, there may be no better way to entertain the kids than Dreams Come True: The Art of Disney’s Classic Fairy Tales (美夢成真 — 迪士尼經典動畫藝術). The exhibit showcases more than 600 works from Disney’s collection. Among the works on display are story sketches, concept art, backgrounds, character designs, maquettes, production notes, movie clips, and an original animator’s desk. Dreams Come True includes samples from Disney’s early animated shorts, including Three Little Pigs, Ugly Duckling and Mickey and the Beanstalk, as well as feature-length films Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, among others.
■ 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 for Dreams Come True: NT$220. General admission: NT$30
■ Until March 14
Photon+ (光子+) brings together artists from Taiwan, Japan, France and Canada working in interactive installation. The exhibition focuses on light, in its various forms, and celebrates digital media as a mode of communication among different cultures.
■ Yongan Market MRT Station (永安市場站), 2F, 390 Zhonghe Rd, New Taipei City (新北市中和路390號2樓), tel: (02) 2929-8830. Open daily from 9am to 5pm. Closes at 6pm on weekends. Closed on the first Monday of every month and during the Lunar New Year
■ Until Feb. 12
Being — The Digital Eye: Interactive Media Exhibition (觀自在 — 數位之眼互動藝術展) explores the relationship between humans and machines through interactive installations by five artists. According to the museum’s press release, when visitors communicate with the exhibition’s “organic machines,” their “individual selves are connected” and they will “finally realize the meaning of coexistence.”
■ MOCA Studio — Underground (地下實驗‧創意秀場), Exit 6, Zhongshan MRT Station (中山捷運站)
■ Until Jan. 8
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
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
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