Wu Shang-lin’s (吳尚霖) multimedia installation Rite of Silence (內觀感) examines photography in the age of digitization. Wu asks if images can be trusted in an era when they are easily modified and copied. Rite of Silence looks at these questions by taking a closer look at encounters with photographic subjects and the “moment of serenity” that occurs after a photograph has been composed and right before the shutter button is pressed.
■ Fotoaura (海馬迴光畫館), 2F, 83, Chenggong Rd, Tainan City (台南市成功路83號2樓), tel: (06)222-3495. Open Wednesdays to Sunday from 1pm to 8pm.
■ Until Nov. 4
Photo courtesy of Fotoaura
The National Museum of History’s (國立歷史博物館) A Friend for Zephyr (涼友招清風) showcases its collection of fan paintings from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. While fans served a practical purpose, they also became a favorite art medium for scholar-intellectuals. Fans featured poems written in calligraphy or paintings carefully composed to fit within a semi-circular shape. This exhibition will include more than 40 fan paintings.
■ 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 Nov. 25
Photo courtesy of MOT Arts
In between, TRANSLATION is a solo exhibition of sculpture by Korean artist Meekyoung Shin, who is known for using industrial soap as her artistic medium. This show will focus on Shin’s Translation Series, including works based on the famous Jade Cabbage. Shin’s other soap carvings look at the re-contextualization of art history by referencing classic ceramics and Greek statues.
■ 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 11am to 9pm
■ Until Nov. 18
Photo courtesy of Artdoor Gallery
The composer composes the future so that the composition leaves the traces of the future which the future won’t leave is Wang Hong-kai’s (王虹凱) first solo exhibition in Taiwan. The show draws from her research into listening and sounds as forms of cognitive organization. It is structured as a “polyphonic space” consisting of collaborative projects and a live performance that will lead visitors through works by musicians ranging from Bach to American avant-garde composer Robert Ashley, as well as sounds produced by sugar factory workers in Wang’s hometown of Yunlin.
■ TheCube Project Space (立方計畫空間), 2F, 13, Alley 1, Ln 136, Roosevelt Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路四段136巷1弄13號2樓), tel: (02) 2368-9418. Open Tuesdays through Sundays from 12pm to 7pm.
■ Opening performance on Saturday. Until Nov. 4
Artdoor Gallery is hosting a retrospective of landscape paintings by artist Wu Yin-sheng (吳英聲). Created using vivid color palettes and broad, slashing brushstrokes, Wu’s depictions capture both the nostalgia and anxiety felt by Taiwanese people as they contemplate the nation’s rapid changes.
■ Art Door Gallery (藝境畫廊), 5F, 36, Ln 164, Hulin St, Taipei City (台北市虎林街164巷36號5樓), tel: (02) 2345-6773. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 2pm to 7pm
■ Until Nov. 11
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
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
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
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located