All things letterpress will be celebrated this weekend at Not Just a Library, a design resource center in Songshan Cultural and Creative Park. Letterpress Today (活版今日) is an extension of two ongoing exhibits at the center that feature 54 letterpress playing card and 100 business card designs, both of which run until April 16.
Letterpress printing was still widely used in Taiwan up until the 1980s, but experienced a rapid decline in the face of digital publishing. Organizers say that they hope people can see new possibilities in this technique instead of just appreciating it as something archaic and old school.
A good place to start learning about this typographic art is the letterpress market, which includes printers, papermakers, hardware vendors and also designers that make use of the technique from 16 countries. If you want to dig deeper, there’s a seminar and two workshops — one teaches attendees how to use a hand-press paper plate machine and the other allows people to make business cards using their own mini letterpress box kit. The workshops are limited in size, and must be reserved in advance. There’s also a lounge for letterpress lovers to network.
Photo courtesy of Yang Chung-ming
■ The market runs from 11am to 6pm tomorrow and Sunday at Not Just a Library, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (松山文化園區), 2F 133 Guangfu S Rd, Taipei City (台北市光復南路133號2F). Workshops begin at 2pm tomorrow and Sunday. The exhibits run from 10am to 6pm daily until April 16, except for Mondays.
■ Free admission for both exhibits, NT$100 per day for the market, NT$400 per day for the seminars, NT$499 for the hand press paper plate machine workshop and NT$1,200 for the business card workshop. Visit (Chinese) www.facebook.com/events /379395555768691 for more information
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist
Peter Brighton was amazed when he found the giant jackfruit. He had been watching it grow on his farm in far north Queensland, and when it came time to pick it from the tree, it was so heavy it needed two people to do the job. “I was surprised when we cut it off and felt how heavy it was,” he says. “I grabbed it and my wife cut it — couldn’t do it by myself, it took two of us.” Weighing in at 45 kilograms, it is the heaviest jackfruit that Brighton has ever grown on his tropical fruit farm, located