While some may argue that avant-garde is all the rage in China these days, there’s also been a shift back to more traditional art forms among young artists. This is especially evident in Xiao Xu’s (肖旭) work. His latest solo exhibition, Envisioning the Immortal Island (瀛洲排演), held at MOCA, Taipei, displays his delicate black-and-white ink paintings which are inspired by traditional Chinese ink paintings. While certain elements, for instance, two-dimensionality, are evocative of traditional ink paintings, others — including jarring and geometric landscapes — are not.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (台北當代藝術館, MOCA, Taipei), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號), tel: (02) 2552-3720. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm
■ Until April 23
Photo courtesy of MBMore
On display at MBMore is Japanese printmaking artist Atsuko Ishii’s prints of teeny boppers dressed in colorful, patterned clothing, wearing roller skates and playing electric guitar. Personal Reality Show draws inspiration from the pages of fashion magazines and street fashion. While Ishii’s subjects appear youthful and idealistic, her style is also very much satirical — something which is evident in the exhibition’s title. Though all the works displayed are recent, Ishii’s prints conjure up a very nostalgic, 90s-esque feel. One would think that today’s youth would be hooked on their smartphones rather than roller skating or rocking an electric guitar.
■ MBMore (岩筆模), 275, Nanjing W Rd, Taipei City (台北市南京西路275號), tel: (02) 2558-3395. Open Tuesday to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until April 30
Photo courtesy of Liang Gallery
Opening tomorrow at Liang Gallery is A Life’s Journey — A Memorial Exhibition Marking the 110th Anniversary of Chen Houei-Kuen’s Birth (寫生 — 陳慧坤百壹紀念展). The late Taichung-born painter Chen Houei-kuen (陳慧坤), whose life spanned most of the 20th century, documents a changing Taiwan, from Japanese colonial rule to the Chinese Nationalist Party takeover to the democratic era. Chen studied in France in the early 1960s, during which he was inspired by Paul Cezanne’s post-impressionist style. This is evident in his vibrant and colorful paintings of sleepy small towns in Taiwan. Though Chen does not depict people in his landscapes, his optimism and zest for life is tangible throughout.
■ 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 April 30
Photo courtesy of Metaphysical Art Gallery
Last weekend marked the opening of You Are the Sunshine Of My Life 2017 Treasure Hill Light Festival (創作像海洋,愛你像光2017寶藏巖光節), though the festivities will continue until mid-May. The theme of this year’s festival revolves around love and accordingly, different interactive exhibits by 10 artists from around the world convey this in different ways. The idea is to show how art and love are similar, notably through the innate need to create and nourish something that seems so intangible. One of the exhibits is Blind Date with Books — you leave a book in a bag attached with a note and bring home another book in a bag.
■ Treasure Hill Artist Village (寶藏巖國際藝術村), 2, Ally 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
■ Until May 14
Photo courtesy of MOCA, Taipei
What You Will may stir up childhood memories, especially for those who grew up watching Disney shows and scribbling on their bedroom walls. The joint exhibition, which opens tomorrow at Metaphysical Art Gallery, will include Keng Hao-kang’s (耿皓剛) Mickey Mouse prints that he overlays on geometric patterns to achieve a trance-like effect. Gary Baseman’s tongue-in-cheek paintings of cute cartoons fighting and ripping each other apart will also be on display. While Baseman’s paintings are silly and complicated, Chu Wei-bor’s (朱為白) mixed media work exude a calm seriousness. He uses various fabrics such as cotton and linen, sewing and stitching them together to create minimalistic pieces, which, upon closer inspection, reveal much detail.
■ 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
■ Opens tomorrow. Until May 31
Photo courtesy of Metaphysical Art Gallery
Photo courtesy of Metaphysical Art Gallery
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