Toronto-based photographer Pohan Wu’s (吳柏翰) surrealist and psychedelic photographs and audio-visual installations are currently on view at 1839 Contemporary Gallery. Magic as Muse (音樂繆斯) takes photography to the other-worldly realm — or at least the equally elusive realm of human emotions — and proves that photography does not always need to be used as a means of documenting the physical world.
■ 1839 Contemporary Gallery (當代藝廊), B1, 120 Yanji St, Taipei City (台北市延吉街120號B1), tel: (02) 2778-8458. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 8pm
■ Until May 7
Photo courtesy of A Gallery
A Gallery has two concurrent exhibitions, both of which embed miniature people and cities within the larger landscape of ink painting. In Want to Leave These Moments For Them (想為它們留下那些瞬間), Chen Tzu-jo (陳芷若) sketches tiny bridges, buildings and cityscapes in the blotches in between layers of ink. Chiu Ling-lin (邱伶琳) applies a similar method, drawing silhouettes of different-sized petal-shaped people to form mountainous landscapes in her latest series of works There Is No Grief (解消傷懷). Both techniques are so painstaking and subtle that from afar they look like abstract landscape paintings or paintings of flowers but up close, they seem to suggest an entire civilizations.
■ A Gallery (當代一畫廊), 22, Alley 36, Lane 147, Xinyi Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市信義路三段147巷36弄22號), tel: (02) 2702-3327. Open Mondays to Saturdays from 10am to 6pm
■ Until May 13
Photo courtesy of In River Gallery
Ever found a hidden beach or garden that you wanted to boast about but also wanted to keep secret? Wang Yu-ting’s (王宥婷) invokes this sentiment in her latest solo exhibition, Somewhere Only We Know (____的秘境) at the Barry Room in Taipei Artist Village. The exhibition includes photographs of anonymous lakes, forests and other landscapes taken by Wang during her artist residency in New Zealand. The use of the blank space in the Chinese name, followed by the words “secret location” (秘境) implies a sense of mystery and adventure that comes with exploring uncharted territory, where viewers can substitute their own “secret locations.”
■ 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 May 21
Photo courtesy of In River Gallery
A Mirage (迷景考) opens at In River gallery tomorrow and is a joint exhibition of work by Huang Po-hsun (黃柏勳) and Lu Xiangyi (鹿向夷). Huang’s vibrant and colorful paintings resemble otherworldly places — glittering purple forests, pink sea creatures — but they also seem to evoke the lush and tropical climate of his native Kaohsiung. Lu, meanwhile, uses mostly pastel greens and yellows to convey both the calm and intensity, as well as the vast loneliness of nature.
■ In River Gallery (穎川畫廊), 2F, 45, Renai Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市仁愛路一段45號2樓), tel: (02) 2357-9900. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 8pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until May 24
Photo courtesy of 1839 Contemporary Gallery
Psychedelic and otherworldly seem to be popular motifs at art galleries as of late. Zero Gravity Paradise (失重樂園) featuring the works of Japanese computer graphic artist Kawaguchi Yoichiro, which opens at MOCA, Taipei tomorrow, is inspired by the Cambrian Explosion 541 million years ago. Since the 1970s, Kawaguchi has been using 3D growth algorithms to generate his own wacky fluorescent creature called Eggy. Viewers can see how Eggy has grown and evolved over the years while confronting their own monsters.
■ 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
■ Opens tomorrow. Until June 18
Photo courtesy of A Gallery
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built