The Taipei Fine Art Museum (TFAM, 臺北市立美術館) presents Nested (安棲), a solo exhibition by internationally renowned artist Tse Su-mei (謝素梅). This is the last stop of a touring exhibition that has also recently traveled through Luxembourg, Switzerland and China. Tse first rose to fame when she represented Luxembourg at the Venice Biennial. She is known for creating photography, sculpture and installations that examine time, identity, memory, music and language. Her work often connects different realms of knowledge, senses and experience. Born into a musical family and later becoming a professional cellist, music is a fundamental aspect of her work. The exhibition shows a selection of new works that Tse has produced during her recent residencies in Italy and Japan. The title of the show refers to one of Tse’s sculptures in which stone balls of various sizes and colors are embedded in limestone. The work references marble games and planetary networks. Stone Collection is a series of sculptures inspired by the Chinese literati tradition of collecting rocks, or “scholars rocks,” which are naturally occurring or shaped rocks which are traditionally appreciated by Chinese scholars.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (台北市立美術館 TFAM), 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei (台北市中山北路三段181號), tel: (02) 2595-7656. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm and until 8:30pm on Saturdays
■ Until July 14
Photo Courtesy of Pon Ding
David Shrigley is a Glasgow-based visual artist who masterfully combines poignant thought and playful humor in his drawings, sculptures photographs and prints. His style is refreshing and disarming, characterized by casual and cartoonish narratives that reflect on a range of social issues. For Shrigley, drawing is a natural process of recording and working through daily life experiences. “My work is fiction, it’s not autobiography, and the things I say, the voice of my work, isn’t necessarily my voice,” the artist said in an 2014 interview. “[Art] perhaps serves a cathartic purpose and it’s somehow a healthy thing for me to say what I say.” Active between the fields of art and design, Shrigley often translates his artwork into designs such as books, T-shirts and badges. Currently on view at Pon Ding is a selection of merchandise based on Shrigley’s signature work, Swan Things, a giant inflatable swan-like sculpture with an exaggerated neck. The swan form is loosely based on Really Good, a seven-meter high, giant thumbs-up sculpture that graced London’s Trafalgar Square in 2016. A selection of silkscreen prints and publications are also available at the show.
■ Pon Ding (朋丁), 3F, 6, Ln 53, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市中山北路一段53巷6號3樓), tel: (02) 2537-7281. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 8pm
■ Until May 4
Photo Courtesy of the artist and Edouard Malingue Gallery
The Taipei Literature Festival (台北文學季), held every Spring, is a rich program of book features, talks, exhibitions and film screenings that offer alternatives ways of experiencing the joy of reading. This year, the festival focuses on literary explorations of Taipei City that examine its history, culture and transformations over the years. Writers and scholars lead guided tours through different parts of the city, while special presentations of recommended books are available at every public library in Taipei. Hear Literature: Find Streetvoice in Taipei (耳朵帶路—臺北街道尋聲) is the festival’s special exhibition, which features moving image and sound-based artworks that reinterpret historical literary works. The show examines the idea of synesthesia — between writing, sound and image — to create imaginative and open narratives. Our City Our Song is a playlist of Mandarin, Taiwanese and Japanese songs compiled by local musicians and artists that evoke personal memories of Taipei. Contributors include popular lyricist Vincent Fang (方文山), critic Chen Te-cheng (陳德政) and indie musician Sandee Chen (陳珊妮). Hsu Yen-ting (許雁婷) assembles recorded samples and literary recitations through techniques of montage to reinterpret the soundscape of five areas around Taipei City to examine changes in the city’s sounds over time.
■ Bopiliao Historical Block (剝皮寮歷史街區), Ln 173, Kangding Road, Taipei City (台北市康定路173巷), tel: (02) 2308-2966. Open Daily from 11am-6pm
■ Until May 12
Photo Courtesy of Powen Gallery
The ninth edition of Creative Expo Taiwan (臺灣文博會) is a showcase of all things creative — design, music, art and craft — organized by the Ministry of Culture. With Culture on the Move (文化動動動) as its core theme, the expo emphasizes cultural meanings and promotes Taiwan’s robust creative industry by highlighting intersections between innovation and tradition. A schedule of exhibitions, performances and craft markets take place in five pavilions that stretch along a nine kilometer segment of the old Taipei railroad located on today’s Civic Boulevard (市民大道). Huashan 1914 Creative Park will host performances that feature collaborations between traditional puppetry and rock music, and a fusion of aboriginal and jazz music. At Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and Taipei Expo Park, an industry-oriented fair dedicated to design will display cultural products and enterprises with original demonstrations of Taiwanese aesthetics. All events are free to the public. For full details please visit the expo Web site at creativexpo.tw.
■ Huashan 1914 Creative Park (華山1914文創園區), 1, Bade Road, Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市八德路一段1號) opens daily 10am to 8 pm; Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (臺灣當代文化實驗場), 177, Jianguo S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (臺北市大安區建國南路一段177號), open daily 1pm to 9pm; TRW Railway Museum (鐵道博物館), 50 Civic Boulevard Sec 5, Taipei City (臺北市市民大道5段50號) open daily 10am to 7pm; Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (松山文創園區), 133, Guangfu S Rd, Taipei City (台北市光復南路133號), open daily 10am to 6pm; and Taipei Expo Park - Expo Dome (花博公園爭艷館), 1, Yumen St, Taipei (台北市玉門街1號), open daily 10am to 6pm,
■ Until May 5
Photo Courtesy of Literature Festival Taipei
Wu Hsi-chi (吳熙吉) creates abstract, introspective sketches and paintings using a range of material, including watercolor, oil, ink and pastels. In creating these images, he pays special attention to the exploration of light shadow. Wu is inspired by his experience working as a security guard for a container company. “During his frequent night shifts, he observed the fluctuating aura of the tires and other objects inside the containers — the water, the light and the shadows,” writes critic Tao Wen-yueh (陶文岳) in an essay about Wu’s practice. Tao describes the artist as a recluse. In recent years, Wu has focused on abstract and figurative styles. A selection of recent works is currently on view in his solo exhibition Lines in between Void at Powen Gallery. The new works explores our relationship to nature. Drawing from Buddhist ideas of the essence of life, the exhibition offers insight into the artist’s reflections on spiritual awareness.
■ Powen Gallery (紅野畫廊), 11, Ln 164, Songjiang Rd, Taipei (臺北市松江路164巷11號), tel: (02) 2523-6009. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm.
■ Until May 19
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
A sultry sea mist blankets New Taipei City as I pedal from Tamsui District (淡水) up the coast. This might not be ideal beach weather but it’s fine weather for riding –– the cloud cover sheltering arms and legs from the scourge of the subtropical sun. The dedicated bikeway that connects downtown Taipei with the west coast of New Taipei City ends just past Fisherman’s Wharf (漁人碼頭) so I’m not the only cyclist jostling for space among the SUVs and scooters on National Highway No. 2. Many Lycra-clad enthusiasts are racing north on stealthy Giants and Meridas, rounding “the crown coast”
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and