This weekend, renown illustrator, animator and comic artist Tatsuyuki Tanaka will be opening an intimate solo exhibition The Phantasmagoric Machines of Tatsuyuki Tanaka (田中達之 — 迷幻的機械) at the animation gallery d/art. Tanaka is known for his animation work in Akira, the legendary 80’s Japanese anime about a post-apocalyptic story in a dystopian, cyberpunk world. Over the years, Tanaka has also worked on a number of other animations, storyboards and art direction projects for leading anime studios such as Gainax Studio and Studio 4C. For his debut exhibition in Taipei, the artist will be presenting 7 original illustrations, some of which are also included in his monographs Cannabis Works and Cannabis Works II. One particular drawing on view was created for the show; it depicts a nonchalant teenage girl wearing a complex industrial engine of metal pipes and ventilation valves that extend from the back of her head to her torso. The machine attaches itself to the girl with multiple suction tubes as if merging machine and body into one co-dependent life. Tanaka’s trademark style features a restrained, somber palette that contrasts with meticulously detailed scenes often depicting machine-inspired creatures and environments. The gallery will tomorrow host a book-signing event, welcoming fans to meet the artist in person. Details can be found on the gallery’s Facebook page (Chinese).
■ d/art Taipei, 2F, 14 Wuchang St, Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市武昌街二段14號2F), tel: (02) 2383-0060. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 10pm
■ Tomorrow until Feb. 14
Photo Courtesy of Taipei d/art and tatsuyuki Tanaka
The National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院) is holding an exhibition that bridges the gap between contemporary brand design and the museum’s treasured 18th century collection from the Qing Dynasty. Story of a Brand Name — The Collection and Packaging Aesthetics of the Qing Emperor Qianlong features a selection of paintings, calligraphy, rare books and objects from the emperor’s collection that demonstrate his particular way of collecting and handling artworks. The exhibition draws attention to the storage cases in which Qianlong kept his art. The design of these cases “correspond to the modern concepts of product innovations and brand establishment,” writes the museum. In addition to the packaging details, the show also traces how Qianlong developed his distinct collection through a unique sense of taste, connoisseurship and markings of appreciation. The exhibition includes many fine objects, including a sandalwood curio box that stores various porcelains, jades, paintings and other objects in small divided compartments; a Spring and Autumn period bronze bell encased in a pavilion shaped wood stand; and a large jade disk used in rituals to worship the heavens.
■ National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院), 221, Zhishan Rd, Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市至善路二段221號), tel: (02) 2881-2021. Open Sundays to Thursdays from 8:30am to 6:30pm, Fridays and Saturdays from 8:30am to 9pm
■ Until March 7
Photo Courtesy of the artist
The Stunning Pop-Up Book Exhibition (打開驚奇國際經典立體書展) showcases almost 100 pop-up books in a renovated container gallery in Kaohsiung. The books are targeted towards readers of all ages and cover a variety of themes, including children stories, history, design, art, architecture, animals, film and theater-related books. According to the organizers, Taiwanese are more familiar with regular 2D book designs and have limited access to the culture of pop-up books. This hands-on exhibition allows readers to flip through sample pop-up classics, including Kit Lau’s (劉斯傑) Pop Up Taiwan; Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart’s Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs: The Definitive Pop-Up; and Robert Sabuda’s interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The exhibition hopes to inspire greater appreciation of sculptural books and their unique promise of surprise and visual pleasure.
■ KUBIC (集合) 5, Fuhsing 3rd Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市復興三路5號), tel: (07) 334-7310. Opens Daily from 10am to 6pm, Saturdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm
■ Until Jan 22
Photo Courtesy of National Palace Museum
Andreas Walther is a German photographer who has had an ongoing rapport with the Taiwan art scene since 2001. His works express patient appreciation of the ephemeral and ambiguous, and in his solo show Atmosphere #2 at Gallery 101, Walther shows 13 works that continue his ongoing interest in the concept of atmosphere. The artist takes this concept from the tradition of shanshui painting (山水畫), an art that includes “giving space to all that is open and nameless,” he says. Walther is drawn to the potential of undecided states, in which there is freedom for things to unfold. The photographs in this show are taken in the wilderness of Taiwan and several European countries; his objective, however, is not to record specific locations or scenery, but rather the abstract senses of visual impressions, sounds, odors, temperature and light variations that work beyond concrete form and language. Untitled #5 is a subtly lit forest scene of mossy rock formations accented with shoots of leafless branches. The subtle temperature of sunlight, the visual density of vegetation and the suggested movement between various compositional elements create a clear sense of sensual flow that hovers beyond the pictorial plane.
■ Gallery 101 (101藝廊) 7, Xinyi Road, Sec 5, Taipei City, (台北市信義區信義路五段7號), tel: (02) 8101-8800. Open Mondays to Fridays from 8am to 6pm
■ Opens on Thursday; until Feb. 23
Photo Courtesy of udnFunLife
The prominent Parisian art museum Centre Georges Pompidou has arrived in Taiwan with a fun-filled children’s workshop and interactive exhibition inspired by iconic European artists including Piet Mondrian, Erro and the 19th century school of French Impressionism. Center Pompidou Kids Atelier: Playing with the Images has four scheduled times per day for workshops that require pre-registration and parent supervision of kids from 5 to 12 years old. These workshops are aimed at exploring the creative power of play and cultivating a sense of aesthetics and understanding of art. One workshop exercise focuses on the concept of light and shadow by overlaying different materials on overhead light projectors. A program of animated art films is also screened alongside the play area for further creative reference. In another part of the exhibition, children assemble abstract city plans with blue, red and yellow rectangles in homage to Mondrian’s signature paintings of geometrical compositions.
■ Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山1914文創園區東2館AB倉), 1, Bade Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市八德路一段1號), tel: (02) 7737-3988. For schedule times, visit: www.huashan1914.com (Chinese only)
■ Until Feb. 28
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