Yesterday saw the opening of Hieroglyphic Memory: Surveying Bangka Through Narrative Trace (謎樣的記憶:從敘事軌跡探視艋舺), a joint exhibition featuring installations scattered along Bopiliao Historical Block in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華). The exhibition explores the history and evolution of Wanhua, Taipei’s oldest district, which was once home to a booming garment and textile industry, through themes such as colonialism and capitalism. Hou I-ting (侯怡亭) takes a look at the rise and fall of Taiwan’s garment industry through a nostalgic lens that recalls the intimate process of sewing a simple garment. There will also be a series of lectures on topics such as the rise of the modern city, the history and traditions of northern Taiwan’s plains Aborigines and the benefits of public art.
■ Bopiliao Historical Block (剝皮寮歷史街區), 175-177, Kangding Rd, Taipei City (台北市康定路175-177號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 6pm
■ Until Dec. 30
Photo courtesy of MOCA, TAIPEI
Opening tomorrow at Treasure Hill Artist Village’s Cross Gallery is Panggilan Terbuka/Open Calling, a solo exhibition by Indonesian artist Yaya Sung (宋亞亞) that explores what it means to be a perpetual “outsider” not only when she travels but also at home in Indonesia as someone of ethnic Chinese descent. Her installations take an anthropological look into the history of Treasure Hill, which was once home to Chinese Nationalists fleeing China. Before her artist residency at Treasure Hill, Sung visited Shanghai where she did research into the city’s “banana men” — Chinese men who traveled to the West to study and returned home feeling displaced. Her artwork, she says, is part of her own journey to find her place in the world and carve out a sense of belonging.
■ 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
■ Opens tomorrow. Until Dec. 30
Photo courtesy of Aki Gallery
German-trained artist Wu Yih-han (吳逸寒) is fascinated by the grotesque style of Northern Renaissance art, which she infuses into her portraits of Taiwanese schoolchildren in Homunculus, her solo exhibition at Aki Gallery. Wu’s subjects are depicted as acting way beyond their years: one grade school boy shows off an elaborate back tattoo and another dons an oversized fur coat and smokes a pipe. In another painting, a little girl with her skirt hiked up to her hips plays a recorder on the lap of her music teacher. It’s easy to dismiss Wu’s paintings as being disturbing but there’s plenty to learn from them too as people aren’t as innocent as they seem.
■ Aki Gallery (也趣藝廊), 141 Minzu W Rd, Taipei City (台北市民族西路141號), tel: (02) 2599-1171. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 6:30pm
■ Until Jan. 8
Photo courtesy of MOCA
The Moment (此時), currently on view at MOCA Video Underground, consists of selected works created by video artists that explore the interconnected notions of growth and decline. In Liang Liang (涼涼), Chang Wan-ling (張菀玲) films an apartment building from the ground up and then the top down in super slow motion so as to create a sense of familiarity in the viewer despite this being a strange and unremarkable building. In Cycle (生之迴), Su Tsan-yuan (蘇粲淵) and Neoh Ruo-qian (梁若茜) take a simple concept — the juxtaposition of life and death — and re-contextualize it to show how life is ephemeral in the grand scheme of nature.
■ MOCA Video Underground (藝術一條街), Zhongshan Metro Mall Exit R9 TV Corridor (捷運中山地下街R9 出口電視牆), tel: (02) 2552-3720
■ Until Jan. 15
Photo courtesy of Chini Gallery
Chini Gallery is currently hosting Contemporary Taiwan: An Exhibition of Abstract Art Classics (當代台灣‧抽象經典展), a retrospective of works by 57 Taiwanese artists born between the ‘30s and ‘70s who dabbled in contemporary art. Included in the exhibition is Nanjing-born artist Ho Kan’s (霍剛) paintings which evolved from surrealist to geometric abstraction. His most recent works from the last five years take on a particularly humorous slant, especially his Continuity series which depict little cartoon figures made out of two-dimensional geometric shapes. Also in the lineup is Beijing-born artist Chuang Che’s (莊喆) abstract calligraphy painted in earth tones.
■ 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 31
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