Currently on display at Metaphysical Art Gallery is God’s Tear Drop (老天爺的淚珠). South Korean artist Kim Tschang-yeul’s, who is one of the “founding fathers” of the Korean monochrome movement known as Danseakhwa, initially started painting tear drops to symbolize the process of healing after the Korean War. Little did he know that he would spend his entire career painting water droplets — tiny ones, plump ones, droplets set against various backdrops such as old scrolls and newspaper clippings. Water to Kim symbolizes life and death, birth and rebirth, and his droplets, which exude a calming, trickling effect, are also eerily realistic.
■ Metaphysical Art Gallery (形而上畫廊), 7F, 219, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段219號7樓), tel: (02) 2771-3236. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6:30pm
■ Until March 12
Photo courtesy of TKG+ Projects
As a child, Chen Chien-jung (陳建榮) was fascinated by the instruction manuals and diagrams depicting how to assemble the different parts of a toy rather than the actual toys themselves. He derives inspiration from these manuals and diagrams in his artwork which will be on display in his latest solo exhibition Well-Lighted Rooms (明亮的房間) at Project Fulfill Art Space. Chen’s paintings are both architectural and poetic. Detailed lines and measurements are overlaid with seemingly slapdash, pastel-colored brush strokes. His paintings also thread two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality.
■ 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
■ Opens Sunday. Until April 1
Photo courtesy of TKG+ Projects
Galerie Nichido celebrates its 90th birthday with Take a Line for a Walk (線性漫遊). The exhibition, which includes works from the likes of Andy Warhol, Janaina Tschape and Jasper Johns, derives its title from a saying by Swiss-German expressionist-surrealist artist Paul Klee. The saying alludes to capturing quick vignettes or everyday scenes. The artworks to be displayed are mostly simple but telling. Warhol’s drawings of daisies, for instance, juxtaposes bright-colored lines with dark backgrounds to create a pop art effect that begs viewers to see the beauty in flowers in a different light.
■ Galerie Nichido Taipei (台北日動畫廊), 3F, 57, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段57號3樓), tel: (02) 2579-8795. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11am to 7pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until April 8
Photo courtesy of Project Fulfill Art Space
Taipei-born activist artist Yao Jui-chung (姚瑞中) shows his mellower side in his latest solo exhibition, Eight Days a Week (週休八日), opening at Tina Keng Gallery tomorrow. Yao, whose past work includes public urination (to make a political statement of course) as well as photo-documentation of Taiwan’s “mosquito halls” — abandoned public property — turns his focus to childhood imagery, cartoons and pop culture. Yao says his worldview changed after having two daughters and that doting sentiment shows in his latest paintings such as Superman Daddy, where a man seems to be teaching his two children — who are wearing capes — a couple of fight moves.
■ Tina Keng Gallery (耿畫廊), 15, Ln 548, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路548巷15號), tel: (02) 2659-0798. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until April 9
Photo courtesy of tina keng gallery
Those who are into black-and-white dystopian imagery will want to check out Chinese artist Jiang Zhi’s (蔣志) solo exhibition at TKG+ Projects. One Is All, All Is One (我們) explores the relationship between human beings and their natural/psychological landscapes, while alluding to themes such as anxiety, greed and desire. As the exhibition title suggests, we are one with our psychological state — the Chinese title simply means “we.” However, Jiang’s work is far from poetic or pensive and viewers sense something sinister about his message, notably, to not let our thoughts consume us and eat us up. Put simply, overthinking isn’t healthy.
Founded by Kuo I-chen (郭奕臣) earlier this year, STUPIN, which stands for studio-pin, is a platform for artists from different countries to swap studios. Opening at TKG+ Projects tomorrow, STUPIN.ORG showcases Kuo’s work that was produced in Portuguese artist Filipe Cortez’s studio in his hometown of Porto. Cortez, meanwhile, has been working in Kuo’s Taipei studio. While Kuo’s previous work focused on aliens and robots, he seems more attuned to his natural surroundings in his latest installations, though the subject of memory still looms large.
■ TKG+ Projects, B1, 15, Ln 548, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路548巷15號B1), tel: (02) 2659-0798. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
Photo courtesy of Galerie Nichido
■ Both exhibitions open tomorrow and are until April 16
Photo courtesy of Galerie Nichido
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