The Melody of Wonderland (仙境美樂地) is a retrospective exhibition of paintings by Jun T. Lai (賴純純) dating back to 1983. The works on display focus mainly on Lai’s abstract and abstract expressionist works.
■ Kalos Gallery (真善美畫廊), 269, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段269號), tel: (02) 2836-3452. Open daily from 10am to 6:30pm, closed Sundays
■ Until Dec. 22
Photo Courtesy of MOT/Arts
Finger on the Void (指虛錄) brings together new paintings by Lin Ju (林鉅). The 19 works on display — representational but fantastical terrains devoid of humans, though here punctuated with Buddhist statuary and there strangely twisted foliage or a pebbles — serve as dialectical puzzles or mysteries to contemplate, and reference Buddhist and Taoist philosophical principles revolving around negation and death. Though somewhat metaphysical, Lin’s canvases, especially his landscapes, speak to the subconscious.
■ 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 Dec. 16
Chinese artist Li Rui (李瑞) recalls the pastoral landscapes of his youth in a new series of paintings, Seamless (山水無痕). Li portrays the pure, quiet beauty of Yunnan through delicate brushstrokes. Li’s artworks are closely bound up with the natural scenery of China’s Yunnan province, and express emotions such as freedom, romance and fantasy — states that are often absent from the realities of life on the ground. There will be over ten large-scale pieces depicting smoke and flowing mist, flowers and grass undulating in the wind and the alternation of day and night.
■ Chung Shan Creative Hub (中山創意基地), 21, Minsheng E Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市中山區民生東路一段21號), tel: (02) 2751-8088. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11:30am to 6pm
■ Until Dec. 16
C. J. Yeh’s (葉謹睿) solo show in MOCA, Taipei’s studio space, Pre-Purpose, Re-Purpose, De-Purpose (藝術與非藝術的醞釀、轉化與自我否決), is modeled after an autobiographical painting by French artist Gustave Courbet, who sought to join the personal with the aesthetic through a combination of symbolist and realist painting. Yeh’s Internet and social media-based installations do the same, offering an intimate portrait of an artist trying to make sense of the world around him and his place in it.
■ MOCA Studio, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA, Taipei), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號), tel: (02) 2552-3720. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Admission for Pre-Purpose, Re-Purpose, De-Purpose is free. General admission: NT$50
■ Until Dec. 2
AI Plus (人工智能.改) is an exhibit of new media that ponders the impact of artificial intelligence on society through the work of six artists: Chen Chu-yin (陳珠櫻) and Jean-Claude Hoyami, Scottie Chih-chieh Huang (黃致傑), Golan Levin, Lin Fang-yu (林方宇) and Marc Lafia, Lin Shih-chang (林世昌), Kyle McDonald and Casey Reas. The exhibition features interactive AI and mechanical devices, computer-simulated environments and visual modeling regenerated by artificial intelligence.
■ National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung (國立台灣美術館), 2, Wucyuan W Rd Sec 1, Greater Taichung (台中市五權西路一段2號), tel: (04) 2372-3552. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 5pm
■ Until Feb. 17
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not