Currently on display at printmaking shop MBMore is Emotions Outside Habitation (居所之外), which features Lee Hsuan-pei’s (李宣霈) linocuts of modest but whimsy homes. Lee drew his inspiration from wandering the streets and alleys of Taipei and noticing the demolition of old homes and construction of new ones. He uses pastel hues in some prints and black and white in others, though the effect in each is similar — mysterious and nostalgic.
■ MBMore (岩筆模), 275, Nanjing W Rd, Taipei City (台北市南京西路275號), tel: (02) 2558-3395. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Nov. 6
Photo courtesy of Mind Set Art Center
Sound artist Hsu Yen-ting (許雁婷) draws inspiration from the ocean. Waterland (水上樂園), developed during Hsu’s artist residency in the port city of Freemantle in Western Australia, is now on exhibit at the Barry Room at Taipei Artist Village. The project explores various sounds from ripples in water to crashing waves as well as the different effects the ocean renders on us, including calm and fear. Hsu says she was constantly reminded of the beaches in Taiwan during her stay in Freemantle.
■ 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 Nov. 6
Photo courtesy of Mind Set Art Center
On view at Galerie Pierre in Taichung is A Space Between Us (我們), a joint exhibition organized by IT Park Gallery in Taipei featuring the works of various artists including Wang Te-yu (王德瑜), Tu Wei (杜偉) and Hsieh Ta-liang (謝大良). Wang is known for her giant inflatable airbags, “balloon art inspired by aliens,” she calls them, which fill up entire rooms and are meant to be interactive as visitors are welcome to dive into them. She labels her work numerically, and the one at Galerie Pierre is No. 87. Tu’s ideas are equally kooky. The conceptual artist, who once recreated IKEA living rooms as part of an art installation, works with lasers in his current installation. His laser lights are displayed alongside Hsieh’s work, which consists of sprawling pipes laid on the ground.
■ Galerie Pierre (臻品藝術中心), 35 Jhongcheng St, Taichung City (台中市忠誠街35號), tel: (04) 2323-3215. Open Mondays to Saturdays from 9:30am to 6:30pm
■ Until Nov. 26
Photo courtesy of MBMore
Opening tomorrow at Bluerider Art is City Symphony, a solo exhibition by American artist Bryan Ida. Ida, who initially trained as a musician, discovered his love for painting in the late ‘80s. His paintings, which make use of bright colors and overlapping geometric shapes, convey a feeling of warmth reminiscent of his native southern California. Ida’s latest series focuses on the word “littoral,” which refers to water that is close to the shore. He uses this idea as an allegory to demonstrate other types of collisions such as humans and nature, urban and rural.
■ Bluerider Art (藍騎士藝術空間), 9F, 25-1, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市仁愛路四段25-1號9樓), tel: (02) 2752-2238. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 9am to 6pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Nov. 26
Photo courtesy of IT Park Gallery
Every Island from Sea to Sea: Recent Philippine Art (諸海各島:菲律賓藝術聯展), which opens at Mind Set Art Center tomorrow, features the works of various Filipino artists. The country was successively colonized by Spain, the US and Japan, and themes such as national identity and the idea of home and belonging have long piqued the interest of Filipino artists. Buen Calubayan’s paintings explores the Philippines’ fraught history through interweaving personal and cultural histories. The themes in Marc Gaba’s artwork are equally exhaustive but interconnected, covering democracy, migration and his own Christian faith. His painting, Antiterrorism (Empire) takes a critical look at American “imperialism.” Also in the show is Marina Cruz, who is known for her super-realistic depictions of old, tattered dresses worn by her mother and aunt. She explores her own identity by recording and reviving these vintage garments. The exhibit is curated by Patrick Flores, art studies professor at the University of the Philippines, who will be speaking at the gallery tomorrow afternoon.
■ Mind Set Art Center (安卓藝術), 7F, 180, Heping E Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市和平東路一段180號7樓), tel: (02) 2365-6008. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11am to 6pm
■ The curator talk is tomorrow at 2pm, opening reception is at 4pm. Until Nov. 26
Photo courtesy of Bluerider Art
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
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
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s