Running concurrently with the 2018 Taichung World Flora Exposition is National Palace Museum’s flower- themed Pure Offerings of a Myriad Plants: Paintings on Flower Vases and Potted Scenes (百卉清供-瓶花與盆景畫特展). The exhibition features 42 paintings that shed light on the Chinese tradition of bonsai and floral arrangement. According to the museum, the art of vase flowers began some time between the Six and the Tang dynasties, mainly in the context of offering flowers to the Buddha. In the Song and Yuan dynasties, there was an increase of floral types available as methods of cultivation matured. During this time, the art of ceramics and the arrangement of flowers and branches also flourished and continued to develop into more refined literati aesthetics in the Ming and Qing dynasties. “Flower vases and potted scenes present viewers with ‘a world in a flower, a Buddha in a leaf,’ reflecting great observation and creativity as well as the rich symbolic content of traditional customs,” writes the museum. The show not only promotes the artistic merit of plant and flower paintings, it also hopes to encourage contemplation of how to live in harmony with nature.
■ 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 daily from 8:30am to 6:30pm; closes at 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays
■ Until Dec. 25
Photo Courtesy of National Palace Museum
This weekend, C-LAB opens its second inaugural exhibition, Re-Base: When Experiments Become Attitude (再基地:當實驗成為態度), which is curated by Wang Chun-Chieh (王俊傑). The curatorial direction seems to weigh heavily on defining C-LAB’s creative potential as a new art institution located in the former Taipei Air Force Base. Wang defines the site as a convergence point for cultural experimentation, where “pre-established functions of the space will be broken through and a new network of inter-connectivity created,” reads the exhibition press release. The 11 artists and groups participating in the show work in different capacities, including visual, conceptual, performance, literary and new media arts. All works are site-specific and inspired by the space. Award-winning poet Hsia Yu (夏宇) presents 19 pieces of poetry by a large scrolling marquee and a series of “badly-taken” travel photos. A curtain of water separates the viewer from the work, creating an additional aesthetic layer. SLEEP 79 , by London-based artists Cheang Shu-lea (鄭淑麗) and Mathew Fuller, is a 79 day project that has invited a number of local artists, architects, shops and scholars to respond to the aesthetics of sleep.
■ C-LAB (臺灣當代文化實驗場), 177, Jianguo S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (臺北市建國南路一段177號), tel: (02) 8773-5087. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm
■ Until Jan. 27
Photo Courtesy of TKG Plus
Supported by the Italian Economic, Trade and Cultural Promotion Office, IN BALANCE: Taiwan-Sicily (島嶼之間|臺灣 西西里文化藝術交流展) is a traveling exhibition of nine Taiwanese and seven Sicilian artists. The show debuted last month at Palazzo Borromeo in Milan, Italy, where it was seen by 50,000 visitors. This month, the show arrives in Taipei and will be on view at Gu Ju (谷居), G.Gallery (居藝廊) and the lobby of Hua Nan Commercial Bank Corporate Plaza. The exhibition aims to foster greater cultural exchange and public awareness of global issues concerning climate, religion, society, traditions and culture. Chou Ching-hui (周慶輝) is an award-winning photographer who focuses on the art of storytelling. Animal Farm is a five-year project that takes inspiration from zoos as a mirror of the state of modern life. Liao Chun-yu (廖俊裕) is a designer and illustrator involved in both commercial and fine arts. His black and white print, The Sea, depicts layers of waves stacked upon each other in interlocking motion. Liao’s work speaks to the Taiwanese admiration and curiosity of the sea, according to the organizer’s press release.
■ G.Gallery (居藝廊), B1, 3, Ally 3, Lane 227, Nongan St, Taipei City (台北市農安街227巷3弄3號B1), tel: (02) 2501-8326. Opens Wednesdays from 12pm to 7pm, and Thursdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm; Gu Ju (谷居), 38, Ln 14, Dihua St Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市迪化街一段14巷38號), tel: (03) 526-3176. Open Tuesdays to Sundays 10am to 7pm
■ Until Nov. 25
Photo Courtesy of G.Gallery
Currently on view at TKG Plus is Thai artist Mit Jai Inn’s solo exhibition Light, Dark, Other. Mit Jai Inn is known for creating painting installations that involve clumps of oil pigment on untrimmed linen. The raw nature of his work “gives off a sense of wildness and freshness as well as the vibrant and saturated shades characteristic of the tropical rainforests,” writes the gallery in a press release. In addition to hanging his pieces on the wall and from the ceiling, Mit Jai Inn offers a tactile experience by placing his work on the ground so people can walk it. The process of creating these paintings is a laborious process of repeated mixing and applying the paint. The use of color, central to Mit Jai Inn’s practice, also carries political connotations that speak to the nation’s “changing cultural [and] political outcomes.” In addition to his personal work, the artist is also a member of Chiang Mai Social Installation, an artist collective that concerns itself with the politics of space by carrying out art actions in urban spaces.
■ TKG+ Projects, B1, 15, Ln 548, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路548巷15號B1), tel: (02) 2659-0798. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Nov. 25
Lightbox Photo Library and Voice of Photography magazine join forces for VOP Book Exhibition: Photobook As Method (攝影書作為方法). “We are currently in a golden era of photography books,” opens the exhibition preface, referring to the proliferation of independent publishing houses, art book fairs and photography festivals that have propped up all around the world. The exhibit showcases over 50 books in the Lightbox library that have been published since 2016. These books are also featured in the current issue of Voice of Photography in an effort to create a broad survey of the present state of local photography culture. Visitors are encouraged to cross-reference the magazine with the original books to understand the work and the magazine’s cultural context. The show also includes all 24 issues of Voice of Photography and a series of Taiwanese photography compilations published under the title Shout! Voice of Photography is an independent photography magazine and one of Taiwan’s important staples of art media.
■ Lightbox (Lightbox攝影圖書室), 3F, 1, Kinmen St, Taipei City (台北市金門街5-1號3樓). Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 1pm to 8pm.
■ Until Nov 17
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
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In the aftermath of the 2020 general elections the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was demoralized. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had crushed them in a second landslide in a row, with their presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) winning more votes than any in Taiwan’s history. The KMT did pick up three legislative seats, but the DPP retained an outright majority. To take responsibility for that catastrophic loss, as is customary, party chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) resigned. This would mark the end of an era of how the party operated and the beginning of a new effort at reform, first under