Insportsration (動見) examines the politics of sport using 21 mixed media pieces by Australian, Indian and Taiwanese artists. Yu Cheng-ta (余政達), winner of last year’s Beacon Prize at Art Fair Tokyo, satirizes the relationship between business and sport with Tennis Players: two perfectly coifed Caucasian players in a publicity photo resembling a toothpaste advertisement. Chen Ching-yao (陳擎耀) thinks about sport as a tool for programming bodies. His International Radio Exercise Taiwan Version are single-channel videos in which grown men dance, reflexively and almost helplessly, to the morning exercise medley they were taught long ago in the public school system.
■ 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 7pm
■ Until Aug. 16
Photo Courtesy of lin & lin gallery
Sharing Memories & Connecting Generations (串聯世代的生活記憶) is a nostalgic walk down memory lane via cartoons and museum pieces. Greater Tainan’s National Museum of Taiwan History displays toys, bikes and other long-gone objects from the daily life of yesteryear alongside watercolor illustrations by Liu Hsing-chin (劉興欽), the award-winning creator of cartoon Brother A-san and Great Auntie (阿三哥與大嬸婆). Born in 1934, Liu grew up in a small Hsinchu village during Taiwan’s first economic boom.
■ National Museum of Taiwan History (臺灣歷史博物館), 250, Changhe Rd Sec 1, Greater Tainan (台南市長和路一段250號),tel: (06) 356-8889, open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 5pm, closed on Mondays
■ Until Sept. 1
Photo Courtesy of Project Fulfill Art Space
Painter Hsiao Chin (蕭勤) was born in Shanghai, grew up in Taiwan and is a prime mover in Asia’s modern art movement. In the solo show, Great All (大能), he presents his latest work that contemplates the end of life. Lashings of blank space are the most prominent feature, followed by blue blocks and delicate spots that make up a kind of star trail. Lines gradually vanish and appear again, and seem just about to stretch beyond the confines of the canvas.
■ Lin & Lin Gallery (大未來林舍畫廊), 16 Dongfeng St, Taipei City, (台北市東豐街16號), tel: (02) 2700-6866. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until July 28
The 2013 Yilan International Children’s Folklore and Folkgame Festival (宜蘭國際童玩藝術節) is a 51-day event with workshops, water park games, performances and exhibitions for children. This year’s exhibitions include a solo show for one of Taiwan’s leading children’s book illustrators. Play, Turn: Artist Jimmy’s Gallery of Children’s Picture Books, recreates scenes from Jimmy Liao’s (幾米) books using giant props and character pieces. Children can meet the tiny monster under the bed in The Monster Who Ate Darkness (吃掉黑暗的怪獸), or try out different jobs and their equipment just like the protagonist in I Can Be Anything! (我會做任何事!). Other exhibitions at the children’s festival are Folk Game Museum, a playable collection of Taiwanese games, and Surprise for Age 18 at River Bank, featuring 18 student art pieces that interpret the Yilan folk song Diu Diu Dong (丟丟銅).
■ Dongshan River Water Park (冬山河親水公園), 2, Qinhe Rd Sec 2, Yilan County (宜蘭縣五結鄉親河路2段2號), tel: (03) 9600-322, open daily from 9am to 7pm. Admission: NT$250 weekdays, NT$300 on weekends
■ Until Aug. 25
Using ballpoint pens, Tzeng Yong-ning (曾雍甯) renders spores, cell nuclei and strange flora with microscopic precision. As the eye moves, the visual focus of the works appears to jump, so that Tzeng’s two-dimensional canvases come alive. Works on display now at solo show Into the Color Density (凝彩斑斕) have also been exhibited in New York, Rome and Hungary.
■ Accton Art Gallery (智邦藝術館), Yanxin 3rd Rd Sec 1, Hsinchu City (新竹市研新三路一號), tel: (03) 5770-270 ext. 1907, open Mondays to Fridays 10am to 6:30pm, Closed on weekends
■ Until Aug. 25
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