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
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
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
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built