Trinity is a solo exhibition of photography by Japanese photographer Sayuri Naito. The title refers to three series of black-and-white and color photography, including Silent Gold — Singing Black, Wintermute and Midsummer, that meditates on the changing seasons in different regions throughout the globe.
■ 1839 Contemporary Gallery (當代藝廊), 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 on Saturday at 2:30pm. Until July 18
A Photo holds a house of Gold brings together 100 books and catalogues published by and about Magnum photographers. Chosen by Cheng Chien-chi (張乾琦), Taiwan’s only member of the respected photography cooperative, the exhibition offers an in-depth look at some of the worlds top photographers. Admission is free, but visitors must purchase protective gloves for NT$100 before looking at the books.
■ Taiwan International Visual Arts Center (TIVAC — 台灣國際視覺藝術中心) 16, Alley 52, Ln 12, Bade Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市八德路三段12巷52弄16號)
■ Until July 15
The title of this exhibition, Xindian Boys (新店男孩 ), refers to the locale where the four artists — Tsong Pu (莊普), Chen Shun-chu (陳順築), Wu Tung-lung (吳東龍) and Su Hui-yu (蘇匯宇) — call home and derive their inspiration from. The paintings, photography, video and installation reflect on the significance of place within the context of creativity.
■ 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 Saturday
One to All (一生萬)comprises a total of 40 objects by Chinese artist Wang Huaiqing (王懷慶) spanning his 40-plus year career, and includes prints, painting and sculpture. Having endured the hardships of the Cultural Revolution, Wang secretly painted his deceptively simple works of objects — chairs, doorways and tables — at night. He later became a member of The Contemporaries, a collective of artists that eschewed the overtly political work of dissident art groups that emerged following that dark decade of modern Chinese history. According to the museum’s introductory, Wang’s choice of title and works exemplifies the Taoist proverb, “oneness begets duality, duality begets trinity, and trinity begets all things,” a saying meant to reflect on his own creative journey.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM, 台北市立美術館), 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市中山北路三段181號), tel: (02) 2595-7656. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm and until 8:30pm on Saturdays. Admission: NT$30
■ Until Aug. 5
The press blurb for Crossroads, a duo exhibit of ceramics by Serbian artist Ivan Albreht and Canadian Arina Ailincai, both artists-in-residence at the museum, begins with these heady words: “Taiwan is at the crossroads of influences, politically, economically and culturally. On one side there are two distinctive Asian civilizations, China and Japan, on the other the west.” Drawing on their own experiences as citizens of countries that are a conglomeration of different cultural and ethnic influences, the artists depict the human figure — distorted, ripped and fragmented — as an archetype to comment on the self as a reflection of our own cultural history.
■ 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 Sept 2
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