Asia Cruise (亞洲巡弋) is an ambitious group show that delivers a state of the union on Taiwanese contemporary art. Working with four East Asian curators, 14 established local artists bring works that represent some key political issues, special traits and aesthetic significance of art in Taiwan today. Pieces include paintings, installation and other mixed media organized under four themes: The Ghost Island, Evidence, Isolation and Object Matters.
■ 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 Dec. 15
Photo courtesy of TFAM
Love, Always (永是有情人) is a memorial exhibition on prominent writer Chi Chun (琦君). On public display for the first time are her personal correspondence with readers and family, notes about major works, school certificates, favorite books and other personal belongings donated by her family upon her death in 2006. Born in 1917 in Zhejiang Province, Chi Chun fled to Taiwan in 1949 and garnered acclaim for her simple and tender prose. Her works have been used in textbooks and include the memoir Love, Always (永是有情人) and When the Orange Ripens (橘子紅了), a bestseller adapted into a 2001 television series.
■ National Museum of Taiwan Literature (國立台灣文學館), 1 Zhongzheng Rd, Tainan City (台南市中西區中正路1號), tel: (06) 221-7201, open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 9pm
■ Until Feb. 9
Photo courtesy of Tina Keng Gallery
An uninspired student, David Chen (陳建維) had a bumpy start to life but went on to forge a successful career as a photojournalist. From the Ground to the Stars (原來我不是攝影師) is a solo exhibition of Chen’s star-studded portfolio, which includes S.H.E., Lee Tsung-sheng (李宗盛) and Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), as well as close-up portraits of unknown figures from his private life.
■ Taiwan International Visual Arts Center (TIVAC — 台灣國際視覺藝術中心), 16, Alley 52, Ln 12, 16 Bade Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市松山區八德路三段12巷52弄16號), tel: (02) 2577-1781. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11:30am to 7pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Dec. 1
Photo courtesy of TIVAC
In the solo exhibition Looking for Tao (尋道), Hong Mei-ling (洪美玲) displays paintings she completed between 1983 and 2013. Hong taught primary school for ten years before discovering western-style painting in 1977. She went on to pursue the art in San Francisco, where she encountered personal and professional challenges. The 131 paintings in her Looking for Tao series chronicle her search for a sure footing in California. The barren images are built with symbols and patterns seemingly rich with meaning, or perhaps only with its illusion.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM, 臺北市立美術館), 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Zhongshan Dist, Taipei City, (臺北市中山區中山北路三段181號), tel: (02) 2595-7656
■ Until Nov. 24
Letters from a Distance (遙遠的信件) is a solo exhibition of pop art by Beijing-based artist Peng Wei (彭薇). Peng uses classic Chinese painting techniques to create everyday wearables like boots and slippers. In a project that gives the exhibition its name, Peng paints notes and poems of Western writers onto hand-mounted scrolls and Chinese album leaves, and then incases the lavish letters in carved boxes.
■ Tina Keng Gallery (耿畫廊), 15, Ln 548, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路548巷15號), tel: (02) 2659-0798. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm
■ Opening reception tomorrow at 4:30pm. Until Nov. 17
In the mainstream view, the Philippines should be worried that a conflict over Taiwan between the superpowers will drag in Manila. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr observed in an interview in The Wall Street Journal last year, “I learned an African saying: When elephants fight, the only one that loses is the grass. We are the grass in this situation. We don’t want to get trampled.” Such sentiments are widespread. Few seem to have imagined the opposite: that a gray zone incursion of People’s Republic of China (PRC) ships into the Philippines’ waters could trigger a conflict that drags in Taiwan. Fewer
March 18 to March 24 Yasushi Noro knew that it was not the right time to scale Hehuan Mountain (合歡). It was March 1913 and the weather was still bitingly cold at high altitudes. But he knew he couldn’t afford to wait, either. Launched in 1910, the Japanese colonial government’s “five year plan to govern the savages” was going well. After numerous bloody battles, they had subdued almost all of the indigenous peoples in northeastern Taiwan, save for the Truku who held strong to their territory around the Liwu River (立霧溪) and Mugua River (木瓜溪) basins in today’s Hualien County (花蓮). The Japanese
Pei-Ru Ko (柯沛如) says her Taipei upbringing was a little different from her peers. “We lived near the National Palace Museum [north of Taipei] and our neighbors had rice paddies. They were growing food right next to us. There was a mountain and a river so people would say, ‘you live in the mountains,’ and my friends wouldn’t want to come and visit.” While her school friends remained a bus ride away, Ko’s semi-rural upbringing schooled her in other things, including where food comes from. “Most people living in Taipei wouldn’t have a neighbor that was growing food,” she says. “So
Whether you’re interested in the history of ceramics, the production process itself, creating your own pottery, shopping for ceramic vessels, or simply admiring beautiful handmade items, the Zhunan Snake Kiln (竹南蛇窯) in Jhunan Township (竹南), Miaoli County, is definitely worth a visit. For centuries, kiln products were an integral part of daily life in Taiwan: bricks for walls, tiles for roofs, pottery for the kitchen, jugs for fermenting alcoholic drinks, as well as decorative elements on temples, all came from kilns, and Miaoli was a major hub for the production of these items. The Zhunan Snake Kiln has a large area dedicated