A Deep River Runs Far (神河遠流) presents over 60 Buddhist statues, folk deities, scriptures and artifacts from Southeast Asia dating from the 12th to the 20th centuries, the title a metaphor for the deep influence faith has had on the region. The show aims to introduce the diverse narratives of Buddhist culture, asking how Buddhism became rooted in the region and how it became integrated into every aspect of daily life? The region is marked by a network of waterways that were once important transportation routes, enabling exchange between different peoples, societies, religions and economies. They were also crucial to the spread of Buddhism within the region, which spread from India as early as the 3rd century BC. Despite the continual changes of regimes and national boundaries, the powerful presence of the Buddhist faith remains a constant through Southeast Asian history. Show highlights include a 13th century Burmese Buddhist statue made of teak and covered with gold leaf. The slender figure, rendered with elegant and minimal contours, places one hand in front of his chest as if in a moment of prayer.
■ Museum of World Religions (世界宗教博物館), 7F, 236, Zhongshan Rd, New Taipei City (新北市中山路一段236號7樓), tel: (02) 8231-6118. Open daily from 10am to 5pm
■ Until April 21
Photo Courtesy of Museum of World Religions
The National Human Rights Museum presents a group art exhibition that seeks to engage with historical trauma. “For places where human rights were violated during the White Terror era, some have been totally changed because of urban development and rebuilding. Some are still in our daily life, but they are not paid attention to,” writes curator Lai Yi-hsin (賴依欣). The show, Indicate Justice (標誌不義 — 不義遺址視覺標誌與紀念物示範設計展), serves to draw attention to these sites and to open a discussion of and understanding about the past. For this project, 19 young Taiwanese artists attended a program of workshops and research trips before developing specific projects that focus on concepts of landscape, space, body, language, sound and commemoration. Chan Chiao-chun’s (詹喬鈞) Archway is an inflatable, black-and-white soft sculpture with a painted facade of rugged rocks and smooth stone frames. The sculpture will periodically moved to different sites throughout the exhibition period as an instigator for public discussion. Huang Chien-da’s (黃建達) Circle is a proposal that invites the public to construct a monument with fabric strips.
■ National Human Rights Museum (國家人權博物館), 131 Fuxing Rd, New Taipei City (新北市復興路131號), tel: (02) 2218-2438. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 5pm
■ Until March 31
Photo Courtesy of Donna Art & Consulting
The late Chu Ko (楚歌) was a modern Taiwanese artist, poet, painter, art critic and historian born in Hunan, China. He moved to Taiwan in 1949 and spent 30 years working as a researcher of bronze ware in the National Palace Museum. Chu was particularly known for his achievements in abstract ink painting. In his work, he integrated influences of Chinese calligraphy and the traditional art of knotting to create a distinct painting style that emphasizes on contour and forms. His interest in Western ideas of abstraction and perspective also contributed to his openness and search for new potential in the field of Chinese ink painting. Chu’s solo exhibition, My Way in One Continuous Strand (吾道), is a retrospective of his work, featuring a selection of 33 paintings that reveal his interest in Chinese knotting. The works reveal “the artist’s belief that infinity originates with one and ends in one,” writes the gallery. In these paintings, bold strokes and shapes are accompanied by finely written prose, which adds a literary context to the abstract compositions. With his great artistic and literary achievement, Chu is “recognized as one of the most significant ink painters of the second half of the 20th century,” writes the gallery.
■ 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
■ Until Jan. 27
Photo courtesy of Hide and Seek Audiovisual Art
Ah Tao (台灣男子簡阿淘) is a collection of memorabilia from the archives of award-winning writer Yeh Shi-tao (葉石濤). Yeh is known for his accomplishments in fiction and literary criticism. In 1987, he compiled the first outline of the history of Taiwanese literature. Yeh grew up in Tainan during the Japanese colonial era and was imprisoned during the White Terror era. Yeh’s literary works reflect on his personal experiences with historical upheavals and the difficulties most people face in life. In his stories, a protagonist by the name of Ah-Tao often appears as an avatar of Yeh. The exhibition features publications, hand-written letters and drafts, awards and personal items of the celebrated writer.
■ National Museum of Taiwan Literature (國立台灣文學館), 1, Jongjheng Rd, Tainan City (台南市中正路1號), tel: (06) 221-7201. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 6pm
■ Until June 23
Photo courtesy of Liang Gallery
Hidden Tracks (藏山迹化:山石三人展) is a group show by three Taiwanese artists who share an interest in the motif of rock formations. Hsiao Chang-cheng (蕭長正) creates sculptures and installations that explore space, illumination and minimalism. He is also a celebrated landscape designer and architect who has completed a number of notable projects in Taiwan and abroad. In both fields, Hsiao maintains a passion for the essence of nature. As a sculptor, he works a variety of sculptural material, including wood and metal, to create sensual contours and a sense of order in space. Yuan Hui-li (袁慧莉) is a painter who creates landscapes that appear traditional in form and yet embody original ideas of material experimentation and deconstruction. She is known for her fiery ink technique, which involves drawing with ashes of burnt paper to create a distinct sensuality of fire and dust. Yuan also creates collages of mountains that feature playful arrangements of colorful shapes. Compared to Yuan and Hsiao, Bai Yu (白雨) approaches the motif of rock formations from a closer perspective. His work pays detailed attention to stone textures that serve as silent testaments of time.
■ Donna Art & Consulting (多納藝術), 7F, 112 Keelung Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市基隆路二段112號7樓), tel: (02) 7746-7463. Open Mondays to Saturdays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Feb. 2
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