Convolution (迴旋) features new works by ballpoint-pen artist Tzeng Yong-ning (曾雍甯). Tzeng’s brilliantly-hued geometric motifs create the illusion of movement. The titular piece, Convolution (迴旋), is a page of disjointed whorls laid in precise progression — up close they appear to gain speed and turn like a kaleidoscope. Viewed from a distance, a clear visual order arises along the central point of the axis, so that the piece is chaotic yet lucid.
■ Nou Gallery (新畫廊), 232, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市仁愛路四段232號), tel: (02) 2700-0239. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until August 20
Oceans of Penghu (菊島印象) is a student exhibition of souvenir concepts that draw on the culture of Penghu County. Students from the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology (雲林科技大學) present lamps made of driftwood, educational board games and self-assembly music boxes emblazoned with sea turtles or one of Qimei (七美) island’s mythical seven beauties. Floating Bay (飄流海灣), a waffle iron, makes cactus and seaweed ice-cream cakes in the shape of a bay. This exhibition is located within the Penghu Aquarium; designs are sold at the on-site souvenir shop run by co-organizer Lucoral & Lupearl Corp. (大東山希望天地).
■ Penghu Aquarium (澎湖水族館), 58 Citou Village, Baisha Township, Penghu County (澎湖縣白沙鄉岐頭村58號). tel: 06-9933006. Open daily from 8:40am to 5pm. Admission: NT$200
■ Until August 30
Photo courtesy of VT Artsalon
Very Hazy ll (好朦朧 Ⅱ), a reprise of last year’s Very Hazy, brings together 11 artists that riff on the notion of mengleng (朦朧, “hazy beauty”)— “a subtle beauty that can be felt but [is] indescribable,” writes the gallery. Some works are literally blurred, like Lin Li-li’s (林莉酈) glowing bowl of rice noodles brushed onto silk with gouache paint. Some are otherwise concealed: In The Rocking Horse (搖搖馬的前世今生) by Yen Yu-ting (顏妤庭) depicts a tiny, unassuming rocking horse with a story to tell as the eye discovers it in assorted scenes along a single long scroll.
■ VT Artsalon (非常廟藝文空間), B1, 17, Ln 56, Xinsheng 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 Fridays from 11:30am to 7pm, Saturdays from 1:30pm to 9pm, closed Sundays and Mondays
■ Opening reception tomorrow at 7pm. Until August 23
Photo courtesy of Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Peel back the curtain on vampire lore at Dracula: History and Art of Vampires (德古拉傳奇:吸血鬼歷史與藝術特展), a show of Oscar-winning costumes, the original manuscript of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) and art on loan from European collections. Also on offer are themed activities, starting with an adventure game for couples on Chinese Valentine’s Day (Aug. 2) and a lecture that afternoon on Moxina (魔神仔), the legendary Taiwanese monster. Workshops for kids include a day-long craft camp on August 6, a parent-child puppet-making tutorial on August 17 and DIY Dracula sculpting on August 20. Guided exhibition tours start daily at 11am and 3pm up to Oct. 3.
■ 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. Admission: NT$280
■ Until Oct. 5
Living and Art Deco Exhibition (當代藝術+生活美學 法國 波蘭 加拿大藝術家居展) is a show of boutique home accessories by designers from France, Canada and Poland. There’s Puff-Buff from Warsaw with funky chandeliers, and Molo Design from Vancouver with “cloud lighting” — white fabric-wrapped lamps that radiate a gentle low-glare light. From France, Herve Gambs shows a line of luxury fragrances for homes and Acrila brings pop-furnishings constructed of glossy acrylic.
■ Art Stock 20 (20號倉庫), 6-1, Aly 37, Fuxing Rd Sec 4, Greater Taichung (台中市復興路四段37巷6-1號), tel: (04) 2220-9972. Open Tuesdays to Fridays and Sundays from 10am to 6pm, Saturday from 10am to 8pm
■ Until August 20
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
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
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
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your