In 2013, Huang Po-chih (黃博志) launched 500 Lemon Trees as a crowdfunding project to raise awareness of the depletion of Taiwan’s farmlands. He set out to ask 500 participants to donate NT$500 to revamp three abandoned farmlands throughout the country, while planting 500 lemon trees. Two years later, each participant was gifted a bottle of Limoncello, an Italian liqueur. This year, the sequel, 500 Lemon Trees: Patient Number 7 (五百顆檸檬樹:七號病人), is held at Taipei’s IT Park Gallery. Huang turns his attention to medicine and disease, using roots, plants and liqueurs to create a multisensory installation, though it’s unclear if he’s going to raise money for a particular cause. It’s interesting to note the number seven, which could allude to the seven deadly sins.
■ IT Park Gallery (伊通公園), 2F-3F, 41 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊通街41號2-3樓), tel: (02) 2507-7243. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 1pm to 10pm
■ Until Sept. 24
Photo courtesy of Liang Gallery
Opening tomorrow night on the third floor of the art projects space Pon Ding is Reactive Wall (反應牆), an interactive video/sound installation by the artist Mojoko (real name Steve Lawler) and computer programmer Shang Liang, both who hail from Singapore. Mojoko, who was born in Iran, raised in Hong Kong and studied in Europe, creates a digital collage by overlaying various pop culture images found in vintage comics, television shows and advertisements from all over the world, while Shang provides the sound effects. Mojoko’s work, which has been described as “pop trash,” is a critique on pop culture past and present. The artist himself calls his work “pop culture vomit,” though the installation is just as enlightening as it is critical. In other words, for all the shallowness that pop culture breeds, we as consumers are also very much molded by its influences. As for the interactive part, visitors are encouraged to scream, whistle or hoot at the projection. Images will appear, reappear, wobble and wiggle as the noise fluctuates.
■ Pon Ding (朋丁), 6, Ln 53, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市中山北路一段53巷6號), tel: (02) 2537 7281. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 8pm
■ Opening party is tomorrow at 7pm. Until Sept. 25
Photo courtesy Lin & Lin
Currently on display at Liang Gallery is The Alluring Vastness of Ink (瀚墨芳華). Lee Chung-chung’s (李重重) paintings have been threading Chinese and Western artistic styles since the late 1960s. Trained in Chinese ink painting and having studied Western abstract art, Lee uses color ink to depict natural scenes. In the intervening four decades, Lee’s landscape paintings have remained predominantly two-dimensional with a seemingly haphazard approach to lines and shapes — “clumsy and bland,” as the gallery notes state. The only element that is lively is her color palate — it’s not too common to see hot pink, highlighter orange infused with black brush strokes.
■ Liang Gallery (尊彩藝術中心), 366, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路366號), tel: (02) 2797-1100. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Sept. 25
Photo courtesy of Lin & Lin Gallery
Sailing In The Dark Cave: The Historia Naturalis of Sino Art (石匱夜航:華人的藝術博物學) is a joint exhibition of eight Taiwanese artists which opens at Lin & Lin Gallery on Saturday. The exhibition isn’t as boring as the Latin words in the title suggests. Included in the lineup is Kuo Wei-kuo’s (郭維國) rather harrowing self-portraits which depict him in subliminal contexts taken from various vices from Chinese and Western mythology. Also on display will be Liu Shih-tung’s (劉時棟) colorful collages and sculptures inspired by Taiwanese folk culture and nature scenes from his native Miaoli.
■ Lin & Lin Gallery (大未來林舍畫廊), 16, Dongfeng St, Taipei City (台北市東豐街16號), tel: (02) 2700-6866. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Opens Saturday. Until Oct. 10
Photo courtesy of Liang Gallery
Saturday is the launch of Weed Party II + Toad Commons (野草黨II + 蟾蜍山) a solo exhibition at TheCube Project Space by the Beijing-born, Hong Kong-based artist Zheng Bo (鄭波). The title of the exhibition is a little misleading, as Zheng’s video installations examine actual ferns, not what people from Colorado would imagine when they hear the words “weed party.” Weeds here are used as a metaphor for politics — the pettiness of squabbles between political parties — and how, like weeds, these tensions are so entangled that to eradicate them would require much planning and maneuvering. The exhibition opens Saturday and the group will depart TheCube Project Space at 4pm for a village in nearby Toad Mountain (蟾蜍山), where Zheng has been working on an artist residency, to look at weeds — and commiserate over how evil politicians are.
■ TheCube Project Space (立方計畫空間), 2F, 13, Alley 1, Ln 136, Roosevelt Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路四段136巷1弄13號2樓), tel: (02) 2368-9418. Open Wednesday to Sunday from 2pm to 8pm
■ Opens Saturday. Depart TheCube at 4pm for Toad Commons. Until Nov. 13
Photo courtesy of IT Park Gallery
Photo courtesy of TheCube Project Space
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50