Find Green Light (遇見綠光) is an exhibit of new media art that examines environmental themes related to cities, such as green spaces and urban planning. The seven works by five artists include interactive displays, LED installations, animation and video.
■ The Splendor Hotel Taichung (台中金典酒店), 2F, 1049 Jianxing Rd, Greater Taichung City (台中市健行路1049號2F), tel: (04) 2328-1000 X8815. Open daily from 11am to 10pm
■ Until April 1
Photo Courtesy of The Splendor Hotel Taichung
2011 Taipei Arts Awards shortlisted artist Liao Chi-yu (廖祈羽) uses role-play and open-ended narrative to create videos that subtly examine the complicated feelings relating to bodily experiences, memory and love. Miss Farewell presents these ideas in a solo show in two parts. Twinkle Series depicts the “imagination and experience about cultures and foods” through kitchen settings with “particular food elements and characters,” according to the gallery’s press release. The second series, untitled, portrays the “unexpected sadness and the sense of loss” people usually experience sometime during their life.
■ 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 March 10
Photo Courtesy of MOT Arts
Hsia Ai-hua (夏愛華) explores her dreams and the archetypes embedded in the collective unconscious to create a new series of vibrant and surreal sculptures and drawings in In Between the Dormant & Subliminal (夢與闇的游離間).
■ 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 March 18
First Shot (新影) brings together the photography of 14 emerging artists working in documentary and travel photography. Though no overt theme links the individual artists, the exhibition does offer viewers a glimpse at the subject matter preoccupying the younger generation of Taiwanese photographers.
■ Taiwan International Visual Arts Center (TIVAC — 台灣國際視覺藝術中心), 29, Ln 45, Liaoning St, Taipei City (台北市遼寧街45巷29號), tel: (02) 2773-3347. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11:30am to 7pm
■ Until March 4
Lin Guan-ming (林冠名) delves into his family’s history with Star, a new series of single and double channel videos. Based on photographs of his family taken 30 years ago, the exhibition is a highly personal statement about growing up and what it means to be a parent in a society that has changed rapidly over the same period of time.
■ IT Park Gallery (伊通公園), 41 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊通街41號), tel: (02) 2507-7243. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 1pm to 10pm
■ Until March 10
The Mystic Tenmoku (秘色天目) presents several ceramic bowls by master ceramist Kuo Ming-ching (郭明慶). The exhibit takes its name from tenmoku, a glaze and firing technique that creates stunning spotted patterns in gold, silver, purple, orange, red, blue and green. Though functional, in Kuo’s capable hands the bowls are transformed into objects of considerable beauty.
■ Yingge Ceramics Museum (鶯歌陶瓷博物館), 200 Wenhua Rd, Yingge Dist, New Taipei City (新北市鶯歌區文化路200號), tel: (02) 8677-2727. Open daily from 9:30am to 5pm. Closes at 6pm on Saturdays and Sunday. Admission: Free
■ Until March 18
Space and Glaze (空間‧釉彩) is an exhibit of ceramic sculpture by Lin Chen-long (林振龍). Lin’s use of simple geometric lines and solid coloring suggests the influence of geometric abstraction.
■ 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. General admission is NT$30
■ Until March 4
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50