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 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