After this week’s art listings, the Taipei Times passes the paint brush to another colleague. Art is like storytelling and the struggle to create and tell stories — especially when the story you’re trying to tell goes against official narratives — is real. I’ve also met artists from other parts of Asia who say that they didn’t have the same degree of freedom back home as they do in Taiwan to create the art that they want.
My wish is for Taipei’s contemporary art scene to continue to grow and become internationally recognized, but more importantly, for artists to continue to have a democratic space to express themselves freely — and believe me, I’ve seen a lot of raunchy and tantalizing exhibitions over the past two-and-a-half years.
Many thanks to the artists, curators and gallerists who have taught me so much. Thanks for taking the time to share your stories and thanks for putting up with my Mandarin — though I like to think that good art transcends language barriers. Most of all, thanks to the readers who support this column and Taiwan’s artists by sharing these listings with their friends, attending exhibitions and spreading the word about Taiwan’s many wonderful artists.
Photo courtesy of Bluerider Art
Don’t let the hashtag and the spelling error put you off. #yourkiddingright is a satirical take on a society where “likes” on Instagram determines one’s worth. Held at Bluerider Art, the exhibition is Desire Obtain Cherish (DOC), a tantalizing series of installations by Jonathan Paul that explore topics such as sex, drugs and fame. The Los Angeles-based artist is known for employing dark and daring humor in his pop sculptures. His giant-sized lollipop sculpture, for instance, is meant to mimic the process of having a meltdown. DOC brilliantly captures the hollow pursuit of fame and materialism disguised as happiness.
■ Bluerider Art (藍騎士藝術空間), 9F, 25-1, Renai Rd Sec 4, Taipei City (台北市仁愛路四段25-1號9樓), tel: (02) 2752-2238. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 9am to 6pm
■ Until July 1
Photo courtesy of In River Gallery
Chinese artist Dong Dawei’s (董大為) signature blotchy, patchwork-like drawings started from an accidental ink stain on one of his earlier drawings. His latest solo exhibition, Visible Light (可見之光), which opens at Asia Art Center II tomorrow, will showcase a series of Dong’s pastel drawings that resemble bits of dust that seem simultaneously fluttering and stuck in place. Although Dong believes in letting materials take their natural course — which means letting ink leak and pastel smear on the canvas rather than trying to clean it up — there is also a certain tidiness and meticulousness to his work. Obviously, aesthetics still matter to Dong, but his message is clear: natural beauty is always better.
■ Asia Art Center II (亞洲藝術中心二館), 93, Lequn 2nd Rd, Taipei City (台北市樂群二路93號), tel: (02) 8502-7939. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6:30pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until July 1
Photo courtesy of Bluerider Art
Opening tomorrow at Nunu Fine Art is Paintings for Juliet (給茱麗葉的畫), a solo exhibition by Northern Irish artist Rodney Dickson. Although his paintings seem colorful and cheerful, Dickson’s work is influenced by memories of his childhood growing up during the Troubles. In particular, Dickson’s paintings explore the futility of war and his work has since expanded to include wars in Vietnam and Cambodia. Dickson lives and paints in his studio, a converted tobacco warehouse, because he doesn’t want to separate himself too much from his work. He slathers layers and layers of thick paint on canvas, a process that mimics human memory. Dickson will also be teaching a public drawing workshop on Sunday at 3pm at the gallery.
■ Nunu Fine Art (路由藝術), 5, Ln 67, Jinshan S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市金山南路1段67巷5號), tel: (02) 3322-6207. Open Wednesdays to Sundays from noon to 7pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until July 9. Drawing class is tomorrow from 3pm to 6pm and admission is NT$400
Photo courtesy of Liang Gallery
Time Traveler (時空行者) will put viewers in a lulling state. The exhibition, which opens at In River Gallery tomorrow, features Liu Hsin-yi’s (劉信義) celestial-like paintings of skeletal people drifting in and out of natural backgrounds as well as Tu Sheng-chun’s (涂聖群) paintings of driftwood floating through galaxies. Crucial to both artists’ message is the idea that traveling is very much like wandering aimlessly. Not only do we tend to get lost when we’re traveling, but we’re also constantly thinking of our new surroundings and drifting further from what we know as our reality.
■ 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 June 3. Until July 5
Photo courtesy of In River Gallery
Belief / Relief (寄託/解脫) is an exhibition for the books. Opening at Liang Gallery on June 10, the exhibition will feature works by French artist Gabriel Desplanque inspired by his own travels to Taiwan as well as the book, An Historical and Geographical Description of Formosa (1704) by French writer-turned-imposter George Psalmanazar. Before he claimed to be a native of Formosa (present-day Taiwan), Psalmanazar pretended to be an Irish pilgrim and Japanese heathen. Pretending to be from Formosa was his most elaborate hoax — he invented his own language and claimed that Formosans were polygamous and that men were entitled to eat their wives should their wives commit adultery. Obviously, Psalmanzara’s book is fabricated as he never stepped foot on Formosa. Desplanque’s sculptures, photography and drawings question the reliability of the travel narrative by distorting scale and perception. The result is a mix of familiarity and surreal. It is also a comment on human gullibility.
Installation artist and history buff Hsu Chia-wei’s (許家維) upcoming solo exhibition at Liang Gallery on June 10 will bring to light a previously under-explored piece of Taiwan’s history. Industrial Research Institute of Taiwan Governor-General’s Office (台灣總督府工業研究所) examines the industrial lab that was set up by the Japanese colonial government in the early 20th century. Its focus shifted during World War II when there was a need for rapid industrialization and production of weapons. Hsu uses a combination of video installation and archival materials to reveal a disturbing colonial past, questioning the human cost of Taiwan’s industrial capability.
■ 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
■ Both exhibitions open June 10 and are until July 23
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
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
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