Taipei’s Chongqing S Rd (重慶南路) is still called Bookstore Street (書店街), but the fortunes of its stores have waned considerably in the age of online vendors and digital publishers. Think X Chongqing S Rd (思想,重慶南路) looks back at the years between 1950 and 1980, when the street was a powerhouse of Chinese-language publishing. Using archival footage, rare books, replicas of bookshops and other interactive installations, this exhibition tells the story of a unique business ecosystem in its heyday. For more information, visit thinkread.asdc.tw
■ 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) 8170-5125 ext. 6625, open daily from 9am to 5pm. Free admission
■ Until Oct. 26
Photo courtesy of VT Artsalon
As part of a new series titled Pop-up Bluerider, contemporary artist Nick Chou (周立) and fashion designer Isabelle Wen (溫慶珠) offer a crossover exhibition at Bluerider Art for one weekend only. Photography, installation, fashion and other media themed on the sea will be on view tomorrow and Sunday.
■ Bluerider Art, 9F, 25-1, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (北市仁愛路四段25-1號9樓), tel: (02) 2752-2238, open during this exhibition from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Sunday
Photo courtesy of National Museum of History
The National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館) today opens a large-scale retrospective on modernist Liu Kuo-sung (劉國松). It exhibits over 100 paintings, many borrowed from collections in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, to map the career of an artist widely regarded as the father of modern Chinese ink painting. Born in China’s Anhui Province, Liu moved to Taiwan in 1949, studied fine art at National Taiwan Normal University and went on to found the Fifth Moon Painting Society (五月畫會). Now 82, Liu is internationally acclaimed for an oeuvre that fuses the monumentality of Chinese ink landscapes with western abstraction.
■ 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
■ Opens today. Until Nov. 23
Photo courtesy of Soka Art Taipei
Since 1983, Chinese artist Liang Quan (梁銓) has been developing works that embody chan (禪), a Buddhist school of thought that values the state of non-being or emptiness. His latest practice is dipping strips of paper in watered-down ink or tea and piecing them together, forming an expanse so pale it seems almost empty. Solo exhibition Joy of Tea (淡茶) displays 17 pieces, half of which were completed this year.
■ Soka Art Center (索卡藝術中心), 2F, 57, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei (台北市敦化南路一段57號2樓), tel: (02) 2570-0390. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm
■ Until Oct. 26
At solo show Balcony City Civilization Quotation (陽台文明城市語錄), Lin Shu-Kai (林書楷) makes maps of imaginary places that are based on Greater Tainan. He draws aerial views of cities teeming with temples, networked alleys and flowering fields — surreal scenes inspired by memories of home.
■ 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
■ Until Nov. 1
Responspace (空間回應) is a mini-exhibit of interactive art in Taipei Main Station’s K Underground Mall, presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei. Pieces include Mirrorwall (渦影), a misbehaving mirror, and Inflatable Cloud (氣墊雲), a sensor-fitted installation of plastic bags that inflate in response to movement. Produced by a team of architects, digital engineers and designers, the projects invite passersby to connect with their surroundings and to become performers.
■ Eslite Taipei Main Station store at K12 West Arts Plaza, B1, 47, Zhongxiao W Rd, Taipei City (台北市忠孝西路一段47號B1), tel: (02) 2552- 3721. Free admission
■ Until Nov. 9
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