American artist Ryan Greenly likes the simple stuff: a clean diet, meditation and escapes into nature. His latest pieces, on view at solo show Jack (我,一無所有), were made in his periods of quiet and lonely mental activity. Greenly has papered over walls with material he discovered alone: flowers and leaves, pages torn from books, news clips, photos, quotes and pastiche sketches based on memories of people. Through the collages, he tries to share his monastic moment with his viewers, yet implies also that it’s impossible to extricate completely from contemporary civilization.
■ Barry Room, Taipei Artist Village (台北國際藝術村百里廳), 7 Beiping E Rd, Taipei City (台北市北平東路7號), tel: (02) 3393-7377. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm
■ Until Nov. 9
Photo courtesy of Taipei Artist Village
Over the Mountain (山外山) is a retrospective exhibition for Chou Ying (周瑛, 1922-2011), one of Taiwan’s founding print artists and educators. Chou is best-known for his Ode to Stone series, which uses an unusual frottage (rubbing) — instead of carving — technique to preserve the texture of the stone surface. The National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館) brings together 150 works including his most famous prints, as well as never-before-shown pieces like dark realist sketches he completed in China between 1939 and 1948. Chou left the artworks behind when he fled to Taiwan, and they were hidden for years by his brother for fear of political persecution.
■ National Museum of History, 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 Dec. 15
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Design Museum
Fresh Taiwan (文創國際拓銷特展) is an exhibition showcasing 70 of Taiwan’s best-selling products from the budding cultural and creative (文創) industry. Items include UID’s (桔禾創意) Dolly — a lamb-shaped coin bank with separate “lamb chops” for different currencies — and iHorn, an iPhone amplifier and recorder shaped like a vintage Taiwan-issued vinyl record. This catalog of items has entered markets of Tokyo, Paris, London and four other cities to commercial success, and is on display now as an example for local artists trying to break into a lucrative and growing market.
■ Taiwan Design Museum (台灣設計館), 133 Guangfu S Rd, Taipei City (臺北市光復南路133號), tel: (02) 2745-8199 ext. 379, open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm, closed on Mondays, general admission: NT$50
■ Until Nov. 17
Photo courtesy of Taiwan Music Institute
Taiwan’s Grand Maestros (臺灣音樂憶像) is a memorial exhibition for Chang Hao (張昊), Kuo Chih-yuan (郭芝苑) and Chen Su-ti (陳泗治), late classical music composers who helped make Taiwanese music a genre. The show features their handwritten scores, letters and other personal items, as well as vintage posters, programs and newspaper coverage of their concerts. The exhibition includes free lectures and concerts of each composer’s works in Taipei on Nov. 10 and Greater Taichung on Nov. 22. To register or to learn more, visit www.tmi.ncfta.gov.tw.
■ Taiwan Music Institute (臺灣音樂館) at the National Center for Traditional Arts (國立傳統藝術中心), 26 Hangzhou N Rd, Taipei City (臺北市杭州北路26號), tel: (02) 2341-1200, open Mondays to Fridays from 9am to 4:30, closed every first Monday of the month from 9am to 1pm
■ Opens Monday. Until Nov. 29
CM Leung (蔡敏亮) brings Hong Kong-style wedding photography to Huashan 1914 Creative Park for the Bounce Art Exhibitions (就是要跳藝術展), a series of month-long solo exhibitions that opened July 18. Leung works with live props such as ceremonial guards to create western, highly stylized scenes that border on the surreal. Last year, Leung was named a Top 10 Chinese photographer by Portrait Photography Magazine and a Top 30 Asian wedding photographer in Asia by Signature Wedding Magazine.
■ Red Brick Area (紅磚六合院), Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山1914文創園區), 1, Bade Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市八德路一段1號), tel: (02) 3322-3663, open Sundays to Thursdays from 11am to 7pm, Fridays and Saturdays from 11am to 8pm
■ Until Nov. 10
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