Illusion Reality — The Photo Exhibition of Shen Chao-liang features work from the three-time Golden Tripod Award-winning photographer. Shen Chao-liang (沈昭良) latest set, Stage, captures the stage trucks used by Taiwan’s traveling song-and-dance troops, which at sunset are trance-inducing and electric. Another project, Singer & Stage, is portraits of the traveling performers, who are mostly young single women in their late 20s and early 30s. Liang (b. 1968) won the Golden Tripod Award for Best Photography in 2000, 2002 and 2012. He was awarded the New-York based Artists Wanted: Photography Category Award in 2011 and first place in the International Photography Award for the Book of Documentary last year.
■ The Pier-2 Art Center (高雄駁藝術二特區), 1 Dayong Rd, Greater Kaohsiung (高雄市大勇路1號), tel: (07) 521-4899. Open Mondays to Thursdays from 10am to 6pm, Friday and Saturdays from 10am to 8pm. Free admission
■ Opens today. Until Sept. 22
Photo Courtesy of Aki Gallery
Living as Form (生活作為形式) is a group exhibition curated by Nato Thompson, of the New York-based public arts institution Creative Time. Using film and color images, Thompson gives a tour of society-changing art projects by 22 international artists and civic organizations. Works include Fairytale: 1,001 Chinese Visitors (童話:一千零一位中國遊客) by Ai Weiwei (艾未未), which sees the artist turning an old German textile mill into a showpiece and free-of-charge hostel for economically disadvantaged Chinese visitors. On August 24, Thompson will open Part II of Living as Form, which spotlights local artists like Wang Hong-kai (王虹凱) and labor organization Black Hand Nakasi (黑手那卡西).
■ TheCube Project Space (立方計畫空間), 2F, 13, Alley 1, Ln 136, Roosevelt Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路四段136巷1弄13號2樓), tel: (02) 2368-9418. Open Tuesdays through Sundays from 12pm to 7pm
■ Until August 11
Photo Courtesy of NPM
Shuanglian Sound Environment (雙連聲態) by Tsai Kuen-lin (蔡坤霖) is a new interactive installation at the Taipei Metro Shuanglian Station. It’s an intricate network of colored pipes resembling the metro’s routes. Put your ear next to one at scheduled intervals and you can hear the simulated sound of railway trains pulling in, like they used to at the long-gone Shuanglian Train Station. Created on commission, the interactive sculpture is part of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei’s campaign to bring contemporary art to the MRT and its underground.
■ Metro Taipei, Shuanglian Station (Near Exit 2) 台北捷運雙連站 (2號出口旁)
■ Permanent display
Supernatural Tales of Gods and Ghosts: Paintings from the Museum Collection (神鬼傳奇) introduces visitors to demons, goblins and other paranormal figures of Chinese antiquity. Over 30 paintings, dating from the Jin dynasty (265 and 420 CE) to 1978, show popular ghosts like the Eight Immortals (八仙) and the Picking-Fungus Immortal (採芝仙), as well as the lesser-known Goddess of the Luo River (洛神). Also at the National Palace Museum, The Ancient Art of Writing: Selections from the History of Chinese Calligraphy (筆有千秋業) presents calligraphy works from the Qin dynasty (221-206 BC) to the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) in chronological order.
■ National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院圖書文獻大樓), 221 Zhishan Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市至善路二段221號), tel: (02) 2881-2021. Open daily from 9am to 5pm
■ Until Sept. 30
Six contemporary artists think that Imax 3D experience shouldn’t be so expensive. No Promising Video Art Fest (沒出息3D錄像影展) is their alternative: A recycled cardboard box fitted with a lens so that a viewer can enjoy their six original microfilms in real 3D. But while this theater is cheap, it seats only one, so the experience is lonely and even alienating.
■ Fotoaura (海馬迴光畫館), 4F, 83 Chenggong Rd, Tainan City (台南市成功路83號4樓), tel: (06)222-3495. Open Wednesdays to Sunday from 1pm to 8pm
■ Until July 27
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
By far the most jarring of the new appointments for the incoming administration is that of Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) to head the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). That is a huge demotion for one of the most powerful figures in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Tseng has one of the most impressive resumes in the party. He was very active during the Wild Lily Movement and his generation is now the one taking power. He has served in many of the requisite government, party and elected positions to build out a solid political profile. Elected as mayor of Taoyuan as part of the
Moritz Mieg, 22, lay face down in the rubble, the ground shaking violently beneath him. Boulders crashed down around him, some stones hitting his back. “I just hoped that it would be one big hit and over, because I did not want to be hit nearly to death and then have to slowly die,” the student from Germany tells Taipei Times. MORNING WALK Early on April 3, Mieg set out on a scenic hike through Taroko Gorge in Hualien County (花蓮). It was a fine day for it. Little did he know that the complex intersection of tectonic plates Taiwan sits
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50