The late Chen Tian-yang (陳天陽, 1940-2011) was a master Shaolin swordsman, but is best-known as a trailblazing sword maker. Forty of Chen’s creations are on display at A Memorial Exhibition of Chen Tian-Yang’s Creation of Swords and Knives (誰與爭鋒—陳天陽刀劍創作紀念展), alongside the historical literature that inspired them. Chen had patterned many of his works on legendary ancient swords, such as Zhuge Liang’s (諸葛亮) Demon-destroying Seven-star Sword (伏魔七星劍).
■ National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館), 49 Nanhai Rd, Taipei City (台北市南海路49號), tel: (02) 2361-0270. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. General admission: NT$30
■ Until Nov. 17
Photo courtesy of National Museum of History
Imminent Sounds: Falls and Crossings (迫聲音—音像裝置展) presents 17 video compositions of sound and image. Unlike traditional cinema, in which music is usually secondary to image, the pieces here use arts like dance, music and theater as equal partners that engage the others in a dialogue. Artists commissioned for the show include video pioneer Bill Viola, music video master Thierry de Mey and Pierre Alain Jaffrennou, founder of the France’s Grame National Center of Musical Creation, which coordinated this exhibition with the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM, 台北市立美術館). On Sunday, the museum opens its 2013 lecture series with a talk by Juan Gaitan, curator of the 8th Berlin Biennale. Speaking from his extensive experience in the art world, Gaitan will share his approach to curating exhibitions — a departure from the traditional thematic format. The talk will be in English with interpretation in Mandarin. For complete details, visit the TFAM Web site at www.tfam.museum.
■ TFAM, 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市中山北路三段181號), tel: (02) 2595-7656. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm and until 8:30pm on Saturdays. Admission: NT$30
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Jan. 5
Photo courtesy of Chien Chung Lin
After Baltimore is painter Chien Chung Lin’s (林建忠) memoir of his young adult years in Maryland’s largest city. As a twenty-something, Lin left Taiwan in pursuit of a Master of Fine Arts. He ended up in Baltimore, a city that was foreign and trying, and where he ultimately came of age as an artist. His solo show features 30 mixed-media pieces depicting physical terrain blurred and contorted by his experiences and memories of the space.
■ Floor 8 — Contemporary Art Space (八樓當代藝術空間), 8F, 21, Ln 19, Shuangcheng St, Taipei City (台北市中山區雙城街19巷21號8樓), tel: (02) 2597-5919, open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm, closed on Mondays
■ Until Oct. 6
Disappearance of Subject (消失的主體) is an ambitious solo exhibition by new media artist Tao Ya-lun (陶亞倫). With ingredients like lights, fire and lenses, Tao builds three immersion experiences and two art installations to get audiences to think off the beaten path. In the titular work, the audience’s image is projected onto a wall in surprising, even traitorous ways, so that viewers lose the sense that they inhabit their own bodies — and can begin to analyze themselves objectively.
■ VT Artsalon (非常廟藝文空間), B1, 17, Ln 56, Xinsheng N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市新生北路三段56巷17號B1), tel: (02) 2597-2525. Open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 1:30pm to 9pm
■ Until Oct. 5
Butterflies, Violins, Glass & Vision (蝶,琴,琉,意) is a grab bag of an exhibition, featuring Taiwan’s largest playable cello, colored paper cutouts and delicate glassware by dozens of Hsinchu-based artists. The collection, on display in Greater Taichung until Sunday, is coordinated by Hsinchu’s Art Site of Railway Warehouse (新竹市鐵道藝術村), which has converted disused railway warehouses into an art village.
■ Taichung Creative and Cultural Park (台中創意文化園區), 362, Fuxing Rd Sec 3, Greater Taichung (台中市南區復興路三段362號), tel: (04) 2229-3079, open daily from 10am to 6pm
■ Ends Sunday.
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
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
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