The Power of Plateaus:Tibet Portraits (高原的力量 : 西藏肖像) is a solo exhibition of photography taken between 2007 and 2010 by Chinese photographer Feng Jianguo (馮建國). Feng uses a white backdrop in this series of portraits of people living on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. His unadorned backgrounds serve to draw the viewer’s attention towards the “unsophisticated and pious” existence lived by the Tibetan people. Though somewhat sentimental and condescending, the images do give a sense of the vicissitudes of life faced by these people and their ability to face an era of tremendous change.
■ 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
■ Until Dec. 16
Photo courtesy of Asia Art Center
Interactive installation, video and light are among the mediums employed in Body/Interface (身體—介面), a group exhibition of digital art. As the title suggests, the artists examine the relationship between various computer interfaces, and their possible effects on the human body.
■ Digital Arts Center (台北數位藝術中心), 180 Fuhua Rd, Taipei City (台北市福華路180號), tel: (02) 7736-0708. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Admission: Free
■ Until Dec. 16
Mindscape (心境) features new works by abstract expressionist painter Yang Chi-hung (楊識宏). Yang’s work possesses visually captivating imagery that is meant to evoke emotional landscapes, with a view towards experiencing life and exploring the world from the external to the internal. As Yang has matured, his mastery over the genre has freed him up to explore a virtual and imaginary space that recalls the freedom of youthful innocence.
■ Asia Art Center (亞洲藝術中心) 177, Jianguo S Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市建國南路二段177號), tel: (02) 2754-1366. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6:30pm
■ Until Dec. 9
Trash, lighters, oysters and towels are among the everyday objects Cornelius Volker depicts using thick brushstrokes and vivid coloring in his series of still life paintings displayed together in Simple Things, his first solo show in Taiwan.
■ 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
■ Until Dec. 2
Mei Dean-E (梅丁衍), Wang Jun-jieh (王俊傑) and Peng Hung-chih (彭弘智) will exhibit new work to fete the opening of Art Issue Projects (藝術計劃 ), an art gallery that focuses on contemporary art, particularly new media art. The exhibition, titled Constant Dynamism, reflects on Newton’s first law of motion, which states that an object’s velocity remains unchanging when no forces are acting on it. But the artists are less interested in the concrete manifestations of this law, instead focusing on the manner in which memories serve as a force to evoke emotional and behavioral changes in the person who experiences them.
■ Art Issue Projects (藝術計劃 ), 32, Ln 407, Tiding Blvd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市堤頂大道二段407巷32號), tel: (02) 2659-7737. Open daily from 11am to 6pm. Closed Mondays
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 7pm. Until Dec. 16
In the mainstream view, the Philippines should be worried that a conflict over Taiwan between the superpowers will drag in Manila. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr observed in an interview in The Wall Street Journal last year, “I learned an African saying: When elephants fight, the only one that loses is the grass. We are the grass in this situation. We don’t want to get trampled.” Such sentiments are widespread. Few seem to have imagined the opposite: that a gray zone incursion of People’s Republic of China (PRC) ships into the Philippines’ waters could trigger a conflict that drags in Taiwan. Fewer
March 18 to March 24 Yasushi Noro knew that it was not the right time to scale Hehuan Mountain (合歡). It was March 1913 and the weather was still bitingly cold at high altitudes. But he knew he couldn’t afford to wait, either. Launched in 1910, the Japanese colonial government’s “five year plan to govern the savages” was going well. After numerous bloody battles, they had subdued almost all of the indigenous peoples in northeastern Taiwan, save for the Truku who held strong to their territory around the Liwu River (立霧溪) and Mugua River (木瓜溪) basins in today’s Hualien County (花蓮). The Japanese
Pei-Ru Ko (柯沛如) says her Taipei upbringing was a little different from her peers. “We lived near the National Palace Museum [north of Taipei] and our neighbors had rice paddies. They were growing food right next to us. There was a mountain and a river so people would say, ‘you live in the mountains,’ and my friends wouldn’t want to come and visit.” While her school friends remained a bus ride away, Ko’s semi-rural upbringing schooled her in other things, including where food comes from. “Most people living in Taipei wouldn’t have a neighbor that was growing food,” she says. “So
Whether you’re interested in the history of ceramics, the production process itself, creating your own pottery, shopping for ceramic vessels, or simply admiring beautiful handmade items, the Zhunan Snake Kiln (竹南蛇窯) in Jhunan Township (竹南), Miaoli County, is definitely worth a visit. For centuries, kiln products were an integral part of daily life in Taiwan: bricks for walls, tiles for roofs, pottery for the kitchen, jugs for fermenting alcoholic drinks, as well as decorative elements on temples, all came from kilns, and Miaoli was a major hub for the production of these items. The Zhunan Snake Kiln has a large area dedicated