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
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