Black Mist—Achiever of Light (黑色幻霧—光的成就者) is a solo exhibition of black sculptures inspired by the female figure. Contemporary sculptor Huang Ying-Pu (黃映蒲) has fashioned 22 pieces — including a pelvis, an ovary and a supine woman giving birth — that appear shrouded in shadow yet luminous, in an effort to reduce the female form to a primal maternal essence.
■ Taipei’s Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (松山文創園區), 33, Guangfu S Rd, Taipei City (台北市光復南路133號), tel: (02) 2765-1388, open daily from 10am to 9pm, free admission
■ Until Tuesday
Photo courtesy of VT Artsalon
The Art of Crafts (承薪.成藝) brings together works by five artists at the top of their field: tin sculptor Chen Wan-neng (陳萬能), woodcarver Shi Zhen-yang (施鎮洋), lacquer artist Wang Qing-shuang (王清霜), bamboo weaver Huang Tu-shan (黃塗山) and Shi Zhi-hui (施至輝), who specializes in gilded Buddha figurines. The exhibition also offers documentary screenings and workshops taught by the artists and their apprentices. To register, visit the Arts of Crafts Web site (Chinese only) at www.cichilife.com/aoc.
■ Bopiliao Old Street (剝皮寮歷史街區), 101 Guangzhou St, Taipei City (台北市廣州街101號), tel: (02) 2336-2798, open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Dec. 15
Photo courtesy of Bureau of Cultural Heritage
The Sunday of Life (生命的禮拜天) celebrates the 100th birthday of Chang Yi-hsiung (張義雄), a Chiayi native who rose from poverty to become an acclaimed western-style painter. As a child Chang wanted to become an artist, but received little formal training due to financial hardship. Later in Japan, he cut paper silhouettes of passersby on the street to support himself. Learning mainly through trial and error, Chang riffs off western art movements such as Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism and Expressionism, applying them to everyday people and scenes of Taiwan. On view are representative works from Chang’s career, including his famed portraits of clowns.
■ National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (國立臺灣美術館), 2, Wuquan W Rd Sec 1, Greater Taichung (台中市西區五權西路一段2號) tel: (04) 2372-3552. Open Tuesdays to Fridays from 9am to 5pm, Saturdays and Sundays from 9am to 6pm
■ Until Feb. 9
Photo courtesy of National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts
Lin Chien-jung (林建榮) is an installation artist best known for his “light bulb man,” a playful sculpture that turns its glass head like it’s pondering the deeper stuff of life. Lonely Island, A Self-Portrait (孤島,一種自我摹寫的狀態) is a more grotesque turn on introspection. Lin’s latest exhibition features a large gray rock that’s programmed to light up and dim rhythmically. The rock is a metaphor for the self; deeper inspection reveals nothing except slimed barnacles and black space.
■ 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
■ Opening reception tomorrow at 7pm, until Dec. 14
Paper artist Reiko Nireki visited Greater Taichung and Chiayi to observe the locals’ relationship with ancient forests. The Wishing Tree (許願樹) is her solo exhibition on Taiwanese tree culture. Using paper and sculpture, Nireki builds a forest at MOCA Studio that’s filled with totems of local rites, such as the red charms used on the birthday of the tree god. A second room is an ode to Japanese tree culture: An ornate tree is crafted out of wrinkled layered paper and marked with a branch, which in Shinto rites constitutes a wordless apology to a tree that’s destroyed for human use.
■ MOCA Studio, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA, Taipei), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號), tel: (02) 2552-3720. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Admission: Free
■ Until Dec. 22
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located