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
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
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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