Telofossils is a solo exhibition by French artist Gregory Chatonsky in collaboration with Canadian sculptor Dominique Sirois, independent Canadian curator Sylvie Parent and Taiwanese curator Cheng Shu-ling (鄭淑鈴). Chatonsky has constructed a large-scale onsite installation that integrates material objects, spatial installations and multimedia projections. Sound artist Christophe Charles was commissioned to create a soundscape to fill the spaces of the museum to further strengthen the objective of creating a truly multi-sensory experience. The themes, content and atmosphere of the exhibition are intentionally designed to allow viewers to pass through space and time to a distant future where humanity has already disappeared. Spectators take on the role of future archaeologists, and, through examination of and contact with remnants of the “past,” are able to puzzle over the cultural life and environment of what we currently term “contemporary.”
■ 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. General admission: NT$50
■ Until April 14
Photo Courtesy of MOCA, Taipei
If you check out the Chatonsky exhibition, you might also be interested in Wang Te-yu’s (王德瑜) continued explorations of space and how she challenges our notions of art with a new series of large-scale installations at Kalos Gallery. Wang’s installations made from various fabrics and materials envelop the gallery, forcing us to enter into an altered state, the disequlibrium forcing us to question our sense of balance and space. We don’t so much as look at her works, as we do enter a world created by them.
■ 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
■ Opening reception tomorrow at 3pm. Until April 20
Photo Courtesy of Fish Art Center
Dialogue of Wood: Warmness and Life (木:溫度與生命對話 ) is a group exhibition of sculpture in different styles by Chang Ching (張敬), Hiroshi Ohashi and Kunihiko Nohara. Chang’s sculptures take their cue from the Chinese tradition of water and mountain paintings (山水畫), employing the material as three-dimensional interpretation of a classical tradition. Nohara’s works combine different thematic elements to put across absurd statements about human behavior. Ohashi’s frisky works are figurative renderings of children at play, recalling his own youth and his naughty shenanigans.
■ Fish Art Center (秋刀魚藝術中心), 137 Jihu Rd, Taipei City (台北市基湖路137號), tel: (02) 2532-3800. Open Sundays to Fridays from 11am to 10:30pm
■ Until April 16
Photo Courtesy of DAC
Kuo Hung-kun (郭弘坤) seeks to delineate the transformations of Taipei’s urban environment with On the Horizon (地平線上). The solo exhibition of pen and brush paintings are reminiscent of David Hockney’s deceptively simple pop art renderings of everyday objects and scenes, but here paired down even more and serving as a visual memory of the evolution of — some might say devolution of — the city, specifically its layering of new buildings into old neighborhoods over the past few decades.
■ VT Art Salon (非常廟藝文空間), B1, 47 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊通街47號B1), tel: (02) 2516-1060. Open Tuesdays through Thursdays from 1:30pm to 9pm, and Fridays and Saturdays from 1:30pm to 10pm
■ Until April 13
Lin Hsin-kai’s (林欣楷) early interactive video installations pondered the aesthetic language of film, narrating a fictional world of light and shadow. With Border (異境), a highly abstract — pretty much incomprehensible — exhibition of interactive installation that is currently on view at the Digital Arts Center, he brings the contrasts of light and dark together to symbolize the interconnection of all phenomena.
■ Digital Art 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
■ Until April 22
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
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
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s