Transgress and Reclaim (越度‧歸元) is the title of a retrospective on the work of Hung Yi-chen (洪藝真), who passed away suddenly last year. The earlier works date from when she was a student at the UK’s Royal College of Art and ends with her most recent work living in Taiwan. The exhibit seeks to delineate her attempts to reconstruct the relationship between the canvas, paint and frame, rearranging the different elements by both deconstructing a painting in terms of its physical framework as well as extending its conceptual spatial structure. Art historian and critic Jason Chia-chi Wang (王嘉驥) curates the exhibit.
■ 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. Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Oct. 28
Photo courtesy of Eslite Gallery
Chinese artist Su Xiaobai (蘇笑柏) returns to Tina Keng Gallery with 2010-2012, the title referring to the dates when the works on display were produced. Su’s austere abstract canvases ponder the act of addition and subtraction. His working method involves filling a segment of a wooden board with colored lacquer, and then overlaying it with linen to produce a new form, repeatedly smearing, painting over, applying and covering the same surface, while keeping the composition in a constant state of movement and expansion.
■ Tina Keng Gallery (耿畫廊), 15, Ln 548, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路548巷15號), tel: (02) 2659-0798. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm
■ Until Nov. 11
Photo courtesy of TFAM
Happiness Building I (幸福大廈I) is part installation, part movie set and part video documentary by renowned video artist Chen Chieh-jen (陳界仁). Set in a building set to be demolished at the end of this year, Chen seeks to offer visitors the sense of what it is like to be on a movie set.
■ Yi-Ping Construction Material Company (一品建材廠), 115, Sanjun St, New Taipei City (新北市三俊街115號). Open daily from 1pm to 6pm; closed Mondays
■ Until Dec. 31
Illusion Reality (幻影現實) brings together the photographs of Shen Chao-liang (沈昭良), who photographs Taiwan’s traditional performance troupes. Since the 1970s, performance troupes have been enlivening Taiwan’s weddings, funerals and other special occasions. Photographs for the three series presented in this exhibition — Stage, Singer and Stage and Taiwanese Vaudeville Troupes — were taken between 2005 and 2011. The series are composed of stand-alone, large-scale photographs, grouped images, visual contrasts and video works, which focus on performers and their various skills. His aesthetic approach involves meditating on the temporal, spatial, horizontal, vertical, flat and three-dimensional visual elements and their interpretations.
■ 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
■ Starts Saturday. Until Nov. 25
Functional Sculpture: Build a Life in Poetry (機能雕塑-構築生活中的詩性) is a solo exhibit of ceramic sculptures by Kung Wen-yi (鞏文宜). Kung transforms a characteristic aspect of the mechanical object, which he then enlarges, simplifies and adapts to his ceramic art. The result is a series of works designed with practical functions and creative humor, integrated into daily life as vessels or furniture. The works bring rationality to the living space as well as an aura of aesthetic poetry.
■ 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 Oct. 21
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and