Stream of Consciousness (意識流) brings together some older oil paintings and newer watercolors by Chen Min-tse (陳敏澤). Though somewhat sentimental in subject matter (birds, flowers, landscapes) and coloring (pastels), Chen’s paintings do suggest a dreamy, vaguely surreal aspect, with undercurrents suggestive of the artist seeking out a pop spirituality so as to escape the dreams of a darkness she is unwilling to face. There are also some abstract works on display painted, as the gallery blurb indicates, under the influence of music.
■ Art Den (藝研齋), 3F, 309, Xinyi Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市信義路四段309號3樓), tel: (02) 2325-8188. Open Mondays to Fridays from 11am to 5pm, and Saturdays from 10am to 6pm
■ Until April 20
Photo courtesy of Art Den
Performance artist and transgressive rock star Cheng Shih-Chun (鄭詩雋) returns to IT Park Gallery with a series of sculptures, Amorous (三‧八). We can’t decide whether to adore or hate Cheng’s new series of stainless steel sculptures done in monotones of metallic green, blue, yellow, white, black and purple. Hate because they are an obvious rip off of Jeff Koons’ overexposed reproductions, though here done on a significantly smaller scale. Love because these zoned-out space dudes, apparently meant to signify the eight generals, boogie on currency (Taiwanese, Canadian, Euro, US), Smart Phone in hand, as though zipped up on space mushrooms. You’ll probably need to enter a detox clinic after looking at these things.
■ IT Park Gallery (伊通公園), 2F-3F, 41 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊通街41號2-3樓). Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 1pm to 10pm. Tel: (02) 2507-7243
■ Opening Reception: 7:00pm, Sat, 16 March 2013 ---13 April 2013
Photo courtesy of NMH
The National Museum of History is currently holding a folk art print exhibition. The origin of the displayed prints can be traced back to the Sui Dynasty (581-618) but developed substantially during the Song Dynasty (1115-1234). By the end of the Qing Dynasty, however, the craft of making these prints had declined with the rise of modernization. The popular themes of prints used for home decoration come from Chinese legends, oral stories, novels, and plays. The exhibition reflects popular themes, such as longevity, fortune, blessings, happiness and scenes from legends, with sophisticated lines and a strong carving style representing the aesthetics of the common people.
■ 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: NT$30
■ Ongoing
Photo courtesy of 99 degree art center
Oliver Lin’s (林勤霖) oil paintings reflect an attitude to life and an aesthetic quest. Having become acquainted in the early 80s with automatism, a style that suppresses conscious volition and allows the unconscious to control the creative process, he became free of the technical concerns that had inhibited his creativity. The viewer can see the free, yet curiously controlled, use of paint in his solo show Songs in the Night (夜間歌唱), a series of abstract paintings rendered with thick patches of paint in dark tones.
■ 99 Degrees Art Center (99°藝術中心), 5F, 259, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段259號5樓), tel: (02) 2700-3099. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6:30pm
■ Opening reception tomorrow at 3pm. Until April 7
Jao Chia-en (饒加恩) will change the interior of Project Fulfill Art Space with a spatial installation called Shortcut. The winner of the 2012 Taishin Arts Awards will construct a series of passages within the exhibition space, altering the spatial feel of the interior in an attempt to eliminate the exhibiting function of the gallery and in the process turning the exhibition space into a work of art.
■ Project Fulfill Art Space (就在藝術空間), 2, Alley 45, Ln 147, Xinyi Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市信義路三段147巷45弄2號), tel: (02) 2707-6942. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 6pm
■ Opening reception tomorrow at 4pm. Until April 14
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
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April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless