Berlin-based artist Wang Ding-yeh (王鼎曄) engages in contemporary debates about human nature with his solo exhibit Lightness of Soul (靈魂之輕). Taking the pseudoscientific notion that our bodies lose 21g upon death as his starting point, Wang’s work explores the nature of the soul and the “connection between art, death, corpses and the supernatural,” according to the gallery’s press release.
■ 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 6pm. Until Feb. 5
Photo courtesy of MOT Arts
Art Tainan (府城藝術博覽會), an art fair, brings together the work of 24 Taiwanese painters at Tainan’s Tayih Landis Hotel (大億麗緻酒店). Hosted by Jia Art Gallery (家畫廊), the fair covers several generations of artists. The works on display range from the impressionistic cityscapes of Yen Shui-long (顏水龍), nudes by Pan Yu-liang (潘玉良) to ink paintings by Au Ho-nien (歐豪年) that combine Oriental themes with Western techniques.
■ Tayih Landis Hotel (大億麗緻酒店), Room 909, 9F, 660, Simen Rd Sec 1, Greater Tainan (台南市西門路一段660號), tel: (02) 2595-2449. Friday and Saturday from noon to 7pm and Sunday from noon to 6pm. Admission: Free
■ Opening reception tomorrow night at 7pm. Until Sunday
Tracing Nostalgia (風景故鄉好) is a series of landscape paintings by Lin Chuan-chu (林銓居). Known for his land art installations and his Family Story Series (家族故事), Lin’s new work translates bucolic mountain scenes into complex universal metaphors about our relationship to the land.
■ Chung Shan Creative Hub (中山創意基地), 21, Minsheng E Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市中山區民生東路一段21號), tel: (02) 2751-8088. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11:30am to 6pm
■ Until Jan. 29
Bo-Bee, Bo-Bee: A Straightaway Depiction (保庇‧保庇—當下描述) is a group exhibit of painting and sculpture by seven Taiwanese artists, including Tsai Ken (蔡根), Wu Tien-chang (吳天章) and J.C. Kuo (郭振昌). Inspired by Taiwan’s religious diversity, the artists reveal different aspects of religious practice in Taiwan, including
folk religion, Taoism, Buddhism and Christianity.
■ Main Trend Gallery (大趨勢畫廊), 209-1, Chengde Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市承德路三段209-1號), tel: (02) 2587-3412. Open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Jan. 14
Wang Chih-wen (王志文) celebrates the freedom of childhood with a number of playful sculptures in The Little Prince (小王子). Made from a combination of unprocessed wood and laminated timber, Wang’s highly detailed and realistic sculptures of children engaged in all manner of play depict a “child-like imaginary world that is unrestrained and boundless,” according to the artist.
■ VT Art Salon (非常廟藝文空間), B1, 47 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊通街47號B1), tel: (02) 2516-1060. Open Tuesdays through Thursdays from 1:30pm to 9pm, and Fridays and Saturdays from 1:30pm to 10pm
■ Until Feb. 4
Sculptures resembling plant life merge with contemporary furniture design in Marvin Minto Fang’s (范姜明道) Recombinant of Objects (重置的物件序列). Fang’s abstract sculptures are made from camphor wood, which he then places on top of wooden plinths or embeds into household furniture such as tables.
■ Gallery 100 (百藝畫廊), 6, Ln 30, Changan E Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市長安東路一段30巷6號), tel: (02) 2536-2120. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Jan. 15
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