Project Fulfill Art Space is currently showcasing Selected Works (精選), a joint exhibition featuring select artwork from four artists who recently had their works exhibited at the gallery. On display is Tu Pei-shih’s (杜珮詩) World Expositions (世界博覽會) where she juxtaposes posters from Japan’s 1970 world’s fair to question the subtext behind the fair — what is supposed to be a platform for international dialogue often ends up as a competition to see which nations are more “civilized.” On that note, also on display is Chou Yu-cheng’s (周育正) reinterpretations of British artist Geoff Molyneux’s minimalistic, geometrical paintings. Chou met Molyneux while he was doing an artist residency in Manchester and he approaches Molyneux’s work with a different eye based on cultural and generational differences. Artists Chen Sung-chih (陳松志) and Sean Wang (王璽安) are also featured in this joint exhibition.
■ Project Fulfill Art Space (就在藝術空間), 2, Alley 45, Ln 147, Xinyi Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市信義路三段147巷45弄2號), tel: (02) 2707-6942. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 6pm
■ Until Feb. 14
Photo courtesy of Chini Gallery
Humanimal (野性的吶喊) is a solo exhibition by Spanish artist Lourdes Salcedo Tavira at Taipei’s Chini Gallery. Inspired by the fine line that divides humans and animals in the animal kingdom, Tavira’s colorful abstract paintings and sculptures combines human and animal characteristics. The subjects in her artwork are all female. While not conventionally beautiful, they appear playful and flirtatious in their own way — whether by donning a crow as a shawl (The Woman and the Crow) or having a giant red dragonfly plastered on her face (The Face of the Dragonfly). Sculptures like Rabbit for Dinner still have a refined touch although plastic cutlery are used in place of beautiful china. Meanwhile, The Scream is a more feminine and humorous rendition of Norwegian expressionist artist Edvard Munch’s 1893 painting by the same name.
■ Chini Gallery (采泥藝術), 48, Lane 128 Jingye 1st Rd, Taipei City (台北市敬業一路128巷48號), tel: (02) 7729-5809. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10:30am to 7pm
* Until March 8
Photo courtesy of Taipei Fine Arts Museum
The artists in residence at Taipei Artist Village (TAV) and Treasure Hill Artist Village (THAV) are holding a joint exhibition aptly named Resident Artists Joint Exhibition (駐村藝術家聯合展覽). On display at the Barry Room in TAV is New Zealand artist John Pusateri’s life-like paintings of zoological specimens. Pusateri brings to life these creatures that are usually seen behind glassed cages in museums. He highlights how there is more to their existence than the mere purpose of satisfying scientific curiosities. Also exhibited is Singaporean artist Jacqueline Sim’s audiovisual installation inspired by the land and terrain of Taiwan’s Pingxi District (平溪). Japanese artist Ryo Shimizu’s undecipherable characters which fill up the walls of entire rooms are on display at the Cross Gallery in THAV. In this particular exhibition, he tries to make sense of Japanese colonial rule in Taiwan.
■ Barry Room, Taipei Artist Village (台北國際藝術村百里廳), 7 Beiping E Rd, Taipei City (台北市北平東路7號), tel: (02) 3393-7377. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm
■ Until March 15
Photo courtesy of Taipei Fine Arts Museum
■ Treasure Hill Artist Village, Cross Gallery (寶藏巖國際藝術村十字藝廊), 2, Aly 14, Ln 230, Dingzhou Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市汀州路三段230巷14弄2號), tel: (02) 2364-5313. Open Tuesday to Sundays from 11am to 6pm
■ Until April 26
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) is on a roll this week with two stellar exhibitions by Taiwanese artists who lived in the US. So Near, Yet So Far (咫尺天涯) is an outdoor installation exhibition by Hung Su-chen (洪素珍). The artist, who has lived in San Francisco since 1977, says her artwork tends to reflect the duality of her cultural experience and that she wants visitors to not only enjoy the aesthetics but to experience her installations as well. Her outdoor bamboo structures at MOCA evoke a breezy island feel — the beach seems so close yet so far away since the structures are smack in the middle of the city.
Following the theme of nostalgia and simple pleasures is Chen Long-bin’s (陳龍斌) solo exhibition, The Reader’s Way (閱讀小徑). The Taipei-born artist is known for his quirky artwork rendering old books, newspapers and magazines into art that resembles wood or marble from afar. While living in New York, he collected recycled paper from offices, as well as used telephone books that were chucked away on street corners. Now back in Taipei, Chen has started gathering more materials from university libraries and museums. Over time, his collection grew to include disparate philosophical and literary texts from eastern and western thought. His “book sculptures” are on display at MOCA starting tomorrow. The exhibition evokes nostalgia for the pre-Internet era and highlights the simple pleasure of sitting down to read a good book.
■ MOCA, Studio, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (台北當代藝術館, MOCA), 39 Chang-an 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
■ Hung Su-chen show runs until March 8
■ Chen Long-bin show begins tomorrow. Until March 29
Food is not just something that we put into our mouths in order to stay alive. Customs, cultures and civilizations are built around it and it’s something that should be enjoyed — every bit of it. In fact, food brings people together. Furthermore, we can learn about other cultures through our wild and bizarre gastronomical differences. The Taipei Fine Arts Museum certainly recognizes this since tomorrow is their grand opening of The Testimony of Food: Ideas and Food (食物箴言:思想與食物). As the gallery notes states, “People create food, and food has a social function.” Amongst the artwork exhibited are Craig Quintero’s photographic series Food Fight (食戰), which depicts women having pies, pastas and salads thrown at their faces in a rather calm, artistic manner. Also on display is Joyce Ho’s (何采柔), video installation Overexposed Memory (記憶過曝) of a woman over-indulging in fruit until it dribbles slowly down her chin. Liao Yu-an’s (廖堉安) Fake Vomiting Demonstration (作假的嘔吐示範) is another piece that explores consumption and gluttony. Known for his patchwork-like paintings of stuffed animals, in this one, Liao paints a teddy bear-like creature comforting another teddy bear-like creature as it throws up.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (台北市立美術館 TFAM), 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei (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
■ Opens tomorrow. Until May 3
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
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless