Magical Limbo (喚.魅) is a solo exhibition by Wu Tien-chang (吳天章), known as Taiwan’s first artist to promote the abolishment of martial law and for developing photography inspired by taike (台客) aesthetics. Since 2010, Wu has worked with video, experimenting with long takes, skip framing and other techniques to create “fake-y visuals” — images of reality that are so risky or absurd that viewers prefer to believe it is false. His surreal film Unforgettable (難忘的愛人), set against a Teresa Teng (鄧麗君) folk song of the same name, is an exploration of what makes a lover unforgettable, a complicated blend that includes not just romance but also pain and the taboo.
■ MOCA Studio Underground (地下實驗), Zhongshan Metro Mall B30/32/34, near Exit R9 (捷運中山地下街,近R9出口), tel: (02) 2552-3721. Free admission
■ Opens tomorrow. Until May 4
Photo courtesy of NTMOFA
At solo show Short Fiction (短篇小說), Liu Chih-Hung (劉致宏) presents the concluding instalment to a series of rapidly-produced paintings depicting his experiences as an army conscript. Liu’s Short Fiction series include a grand, lonely view of a bathroom on Christmas Day, as well as other lows, highs, quotidian and dramatic moments in the life of a young freelance artist in Taipei.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM, 台北市立美術館), 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 May 18
Photo courtesy of MOCA, Taipei
The cobbled streets of Paris and Taipei’s scooter-lined roads come together in solo exhibition Time in Between (時光間). Chen Yun-ju’s (陳韻如) filmed 24 Taiwanese walking in Paris and fused the footage to scenes of Taipei. These composite animations have been installed in a 360-degree theater, to immerse the viewer in the peculiar environment and to encourage continual questioning: “In this moment, am I in a pure and present moment in Paris, or is this accompanied by a complex accumulation of past experiences?”
■ Gallery 108, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (NTMOFA, 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 May 25
Master of Teapot (製壺達人阿萬師) is a solo exhibition of hand-made teapots by Tseng Tsai-one (曾財萬), an acclaimed potter in Taiwan’s ceramics capital of Yingge (鶯歌). Born in 1932, Tsai began working at the Yingge’s kilns when he was 13 and today runs the ceramics club of Wan-chia (萬佳陶藝社), which specializes in hand-molded and intricately carved clay pots.
■ Yingge Ceramics Museum (鶯歌陶瓷博物館), 200 Wenhua Rd, New Taipei City (新北市文化路200號), tel: (02) 8677-2727, open Mondays to Fridays from 9:30am to 5pm, Saturdays and Sundays from 9:30am to 6pm, closed first Monday of the month
■ Until April 20
The Animal Awakens (獸醒) features Tsai Yi-ju’s (蔡宜儒) oil paintings about the relationship between beast and man. Some are fancifully theatrical, like the dinosaur who crumbles an airplane, while others depict bloody scenes of mutual hatred and the subjugation of one by the other. Tsai is an emerging artist from Taipei best known for work on potted trees and other plants — elegant and sensitive paintings with a preservationist’s message. These animal portraits are a distinct departure, in which Tsai embraces bold colors, a crude finish and outlines of figures that are difficult to distinguish.
■ MOT/Arts, 3F, 22, Fuxing S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市復興南路一段22號3樓), tel: (02) 2778-2908. Open daily from 11am to 8pm
■ Until May 18
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