Gesichtslandschaften (Landscapes of Faces, 臉孔風景) is a joint show of portraits by two Taiwanese painters trained in Germany. Kuo Chih-hung (郭志宏) reproduces people in photographs without strict fidelity: Every color is slightly over-bright and every line a bit too firm, so that each “reproduction” becomes a frozen image of a Magical Realist landscape. Wu Yih-han (吳逸寒) depicts family and friends with neutral faces and uncomplicated poses — sitting or standing — against different paisley backdrops. Her subjects’ emotions are not in the face but in the miniscule details, like the subtle string bra on Ana.
■ Aki Gallery (也趣藝廊), 141 Minzu W Rd, Taipei City (台北市民族西路141號), tel: (02) 2599-1171. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 6:30pm
■ Opening reception tomorrow at 3pm. Until Sept. 29
Photo: courtesy of Aki Gallery
El Salvador Nueve Mujeres En Las Artes Visuals (El Salvador’s Women in the Visual Arts) is a retrospective show that spotlights notable Salvadorian women painters of the 20th and 21st centuries. Featured artists include Rosa Mena Valenzuela, Nicole Schwartz, Negra Alvarez and Julia Diaz, who founded El Salvador’s first art gallery, the Galeria Forma. Many of the works borrow themes from the country’s traditions, landscapes and political circumstances. El Salvador, Central America’s smallest country, has a turbulent history marked recently by a 12-year civil war.
■ Zhi Qing Exhibition Hall (志清廳), National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall (國立中正紀念堂), tel: (02) 2343-1100, open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 6pm
■ Until Sept. 29
Photo: courtesy of the Central America Trade Office
The Brilliance of Oil Pastel (彩蠟凝艷光) is a solo exhibition of three-dimensional pastel paintings by Wang Jan-min (王建民), a Taipei-based artist. Wang creates his signature 3D effect by carving designs on a smooth wooden board, then applying the oil pastel in deep strokes so that the texture is rich yet airy.
■ Art Den (藝研齋), 3F, 309 Xinyi Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市信義路四段309號3樓), tel: (02) 2325-8188. Open Tuesdays to Saturday from 10:30am to 6:30pm
■ Opening reception tomorrow at 3pm
Before Leaving (離去之前) is how two cities — Taipei and the Czech Republic’s Cesky Krumlov — appear in the artist’s final glance at them before departure. Chiu Chih-hua (丘智華) builds a tableau using paper scale models, digital prints and video works at the FreeS Art Space (福利社), a gallery for rising artists in experimental mediums. Miniature trees and building replicas are chilly and white, a physical manifestation of grief over losing a home and the thrill of the upcoming unknown.
■ FreeS Art Space, B1, 82, Xinsheng N Rd Sec 3 (104台北市新生北路三段82號B1), tel: (02) 2585-7600, open Tuesdays to Fridays from 11am to 7pm, Saturdays from 1pm to 9pm
■ Opening reception tomorrow at 7pm. Until Oct. 5
The year was 1991. A Toyota Land Cruiser set out on a 67km journey up the Junda Forest Road (郡大林道) toward an old loggers’ camp, at which point the hikers inside would get out and begin their ascent of Jade Mountain (玉山). Little did they know, they would be the last group of hikers to ever enjoy this shortcut into the mountains. An approaching typhoon soon wiped out the road behind them, trapping the vehicle on the mountain and forever changing the approach to Jade Mountain. THE CONTEMPORARY ROUTE Nowadays, the approach to Jade Mountain from the north side takes an
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and