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
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located