John Monteith is a Canadian-born artist and curator who has temporarily transformed the Taipei Contemporary Art Center into an installation of originally designed flags. Kindred Spirits (志趣相投) interprets “the architecture of various relational sites of social exchange that make up the urban environment,” writes the art center in a press release. The artist abstracts skylines, towers, buildings, zones, paths, parks and other distinguishable city constructs into a system of geometric designs that speak to the politics of space. As part of the Tua-Tiu-Tiann International Festival of Arts, the space will serve as a performance stage for a program of local and international queer artists working in performance, film and video. The presentation explores themes of “gender fluidity, identity, intimacy, fiction, desire, race and self-representation through a relationship between the abstract and the corporeal.” The roster of performers include Mria Prosphora, a Taipei-based interdisciplinary artist working in experimental sound, poetry, installation and performance; Soa, a practitioner and performer of BDSM bondage; Vika Kirchenbauer, an artist, writer and music producer based in Berlin; and much more. For the full list of performances visit: www.tcac.tw.
■ Taipei Contemporary Art Center (台北當代藝術中心), 11, Ln 49, Baoan St, Taipei City (台北市保安街49巷11號), tel: (02) 8501-2138. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 7pm
■ Until Nov. 3
Photo Courtesy of Michael Ku Gallery
Michael Ku Gallery presents Great Beauty on Earth (天地有大美), a solo exhibition by Chiang Hsun (蔣勳). Chiang is an artist, writer and educator who is considered Taiwan’s most important advocates for art appreciation, according to the gallery’s release. He was the founding chairperson of Tunghai University’s art department, former editor of monthly art magazine Lion Art and author of many popular books about art appreciation. Chiang’s artistic practice mostly involves painting and calligraphy and he works with both western and Chinese materials such as oil paint and ink washes. For this exhibition, Chiang presents a selection of new works, including paintings and calligraphy on canvas and paper. Chiang cites comic art, Hollywood culture, portrait drawing and traditional Chinese crafts as his influences. In his writings, he credits a handicapped portrait maker as “my first mentor [who] gave birth to my first artistic enlightenment.” Chiang’s later involvement with art history, literature, cinema, dance and theater has fueled his distinct style.
■ Michael Ku Gallery (谷公館), 4F-2, 21, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段21號4樓之2), tel: (02) 2577-5601. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Dec. 16
Photos Courtesy of Arki Galeria
Chan Chia-hua (詹嘉華) is a Taiwanese artist with a background in multimedia and animation. She works between visual and performing arts to explore the relationships between people, technology and media. Chan’s solo exhibition, The Y Generation: Artificial Corporeality (Y世代:人造知覺─詹嘉華個展), includes a selection of works that reflect upon digital technology and corporeality. She speaks of these themes from the perspective of the Y generation, which according to the exhibition preface, refers to the generation born between 1981 and 2000. “This generation grew up in an era when digital technology had yet to become popular; but as they entered adulthood, they have found themselves living in an environment characterized by digitization and information.” How have our senses evolved with the adaption of new electronic products? Are these abilities ephemeral, like virtual realities, which can cease to exist at the blink of an eye? In this exhibition Chan’s work seeks to “guide viewers to discover the boundaries between real bodily perception and... artificial perception.” Virtual Role: Artist Chan is an avatar on LINE that sends out exhibition information as well as responds to incoming messages generated by a back-end program. SomaMapping II is an interactive installation that records the audience’s movements and projects them into a virtual crowd, thereby creating a cluster of collective behavior.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art (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) 2559-6615. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm
■ Until Dec. 2
Photo Courtesy of Taipei Contemporary Art Center
Currently on view at Arki Galeria is a solo exhibition by Japanese ceramicist Tetsuya Ishiyama. Tetsuya is an award-winning artist with a background in art conservation. As a conservationist, he has encountered countless works that embody religious faith, tribal spirituality and individual life stories. These experiences become great inspirations for the Tetsuya’s ceramic practice. ICON: Those Glorious Days (光輝時刻) includes 22 recent sculptures created during the artist’s residency at the Hualian Ceramic Art Center (花蓮台開洄瀾窯國際藝術村) last year. Tetsuya says creating art is a process of reviewing and creating history. By connecting past and present, the artist hopes pass on of human heritage. “The presented works evoke an impression of coral reefs that call towards the deep origins of civilization,” writes the gallery.
■ Arki Galeria (築空間), B1, 2, Chongqing S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (臺北市重慶南路一段2號B1), tel: (02) 2382-1000. Open daily from 10am to 10pm
■ Until Nov. 11
Photo Courtesy of Whitestone Gallery
Florentijn Hofman is a Dutch artist known for creating public sculptures with a universal aesthetic and instant appeal. He is the creator of the giant Rubber Duck that has made headlines while traveling around the world since 2007. Five years ago, the Rubber Duck made stops in Hong Kong, Keelung, Kaohsiung and Taoyuan, prompting a surge of media craze and public attention. This year the artist returns to Asia with a solo exhibition of his work at Whitestone Gallery. In Play Around the World, Hofman has re-scaled his public sculptures for the gallery display, including a small ceramic version of Rubber Duck and Flip Flop Monkey. The show also includes two new sculptural series Line and Glass Eyes. Line is literally wall-hung contours of animals that “explore the essence of beauty of form and shape,” writes the gallery. The artist has intentionally chosen endangered animals in this project to “emphasize the humbling force of nature.” Glass Eyes is a series of big, beady, stuff animal eyes displayed as minimal, abstract sculptures. By isolating a single element of the animal body, Hofman’s attempts “to create a simplified and purified aesthetic experience.”
■ White Stone Gallery (白石畫廊), 1 Jihu Rd, Taipei City (台北市基湖路1號), tel: (02) 8751-1185. Opens Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm.
■ Until Nov. 11
Photo Courtesy of Arki Galeria
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless