In the age of computers and typing, German artist Lars Koepsel installs a show on handwriting and its special power to transform meaning. Koepsel has copied philosophical texts by hand, layering one line of text over the other on paper. Each copy, on view now at Exercises of Emptiness (行空), isn’t a manuscript but instead a single picture woven thickly with text that is illegible and neutralized of meaning. This exhibition is part of a two-year artists’ exchange between Taipei’s VT Artsalon (非常廟藝文空間) and Germany’s Apartment der Kunst.
■ VT Artsalon, 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
Photo courtesy of Yingge Ceramics Museum
■ Opening reception tomorrow at 7pm
To See LIFE, To See the World (看見生活: 經典人生攝影展) is 134 LIFE magazine snapshots of dramatic and intimate moments of the 20th century, from the first moon landing to scenes of friendship and childbirth. The now-defunct LIFE was a US-based publication and home of memorable images like Alfred Eisenstaedt’s V-J Day in Times Square, a nurse in a sailor’s arms at the end of the Asia-Pacific War. LIFE folded in 1972 but maintains Life.com, one of the Internet’s largest collections of professional photography.
Copyright: Time Inc. All Rights Reserved.
■ Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (松山文創園區), 133, Guangfu S Rd, Taipei City (台北市光復南路133號), tel: (02) 8643-3955, open daily from 10am to 6pm, no entry after 5:30pm. Admission: NT$220
■ Until Sept. 21
To solo exhibition Applied Objects (應用. 物件), Greater Tainan-based potter and professor Fang Po-ching (方柏欽) brings remarkable tea-ware sculptures: vertical trays in the form of geode cross-sections or wind-blasted logs, bearing white enamel cups with the texture of pebbles. Each set is fully functional and strives to expand the creative possibilities of the functional object, in a craft culture that tends to devalue utilitarian vessels.
■ 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. Admission: Free
■ Until Sept. 28
Woodblock printing, an ancient technique used to adorn textiles and reproduce text, has become a thriving contemporary art form in Taiwan. The Progress in Taiwan Modern Printmaking: Woodcut & Its Variations (台灣木版畫現代進行式) compiles valuable woodblock prints to survey developments in the national printmaking industry over the past 10 years. About a hundred works by 40 Taiwanese artists are organized under three themes: pioneers, iconic wood cutters and modern printmaking. This exhibition is held in conjunction with the International Biennial Print Exhibit (國際版畫雙年展), a group show of contemporary wood cutters from 56 countries. For more information about the shows, visit www.ntmofa.gov.tw (English and Chinese).
■ 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 Oct. 26
At Exhibition of Traditional Costumes Dolls (傳統民族服飾娃娃展), master craftsman Chang Tsung-hui (張從惠) is showing handmade dolls dressed in detail-perfect garments of Taiwan’s Aboriginal people and of the Miao (苗族), a minority ethnic group in southern China.
■ National Museum of Prehistory (臺灣史前文化博物館), 1 Museum Rd, Taitung City (台東市博物館路1號), tel: (08) 938-1166, open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 5pm
■ Until Nov. 9
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and