Lee Ji-hong’s (李基宏) Anachronism (過時) is a solo exhibition of short time-lapse videos titled after their month of production. The films show Lee himself playing different whimsical games for one. April’s Work 2013 is a record of Lee walking backwards daily at the Taipei Main Station and the reactions of other pedestrians. In July’s Work 2013 — Lee’s interpretation of the “romantic life of the artist” — he is clocking in at the IT Park Gallery every day to wash its windows.
■ IT Park Gallery (伊通公園), 41 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊通街41號), tel: (02) 2507-7243. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 1pm to 10pm
■ Opening reception tomorrow at 7pm. Until Aug. 31
Photo Courtesy of Wu Pei-han
Chinese artist-hermit Hong Ling (洪凌) shows recent work in a rare solo exhibition titled Nature (道法自然). Born in Beijing in 1955, Hong was one of the first Chinese artists to reinterpret the classic form of Chinese landscape using Western oil painting techniques. Hong’s oeuvre is inspired mostly by Yellow Mountain (黃山), where he lives as a recluse.
■ Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (關渡美術館), 1 Xueyuan Rd, Taipei City (台北市學園路1號), tel: (02) 2893-8870. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 5pm
■ Until Sept. 22
Photo Courtesy of Yesart Air Gallery
Meanwhile at the group exhibition New Poetry (新詩意), Chinese painters use the age-old medium of ink in fresh ways. Eighteen artists render untraditional visual subjects — like a carousel, or a bikini-clad woman — while calling on techniques from Cubism and other Western aesthetics.
■ Soka Art Center (索卡藝術中心), 2F, 57, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段57號2樓), tel: (02) 2570-0390. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm
■ Until Sept. 8
Withered Childhood (凋零的童年) is a solo photography exhibition by Wu Pei-han (吳珮韓), a professional costume designer and make-up artist. The gallery includes nearly 100 works of original costumes, props and makeup design in macabre scenes. In the Playmates (玩伴) series, adults stare into space through bruised eyes, while friends in The Joys of Childhood (童趣) have permanent crimson smiles drawn over a pallor foundation.
■ Sun Yat-sen Library (逸仙書坊), Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (國父紀念館), 505, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City, (台北市仁愛路4段505號), tel: (02) 2758-8008 ext. 545, open daily from 9am to 6pm
■ Until Sunday
Origins (源) is Annie Hsiao-wen Wang’s (王筱雯) first solo show of oil paintings and ink sketches in Taipei, her birth city. Works of the long-term Australia resident are like a remote moor shown out of focus: They are fog-like spreads of muted colors that reveal no story and no concrete objects. Interested in transcending the materialistic world, Wang uses the language of abstraction to create a silent and perhaps revelatory moment for the viewer.
■ Yesart Air Gallery, 2F, 48, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 7, Taipei City (台北市中山北路七段48號2F), open Tuesdays to Sundays from 2pm to 8pm
■ Until Aug. 13
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