Nunu Fine Art (路由藝術) presents Look For A Place To Sleep (找一個休息的地方), a solo exhibition by Danish artist and poet Kaspar Bonnen. Bonnen mostly works with text, painting and installation to perform what the gallery describes as spatial archeology — a process of observing and reassembling narratives embodied in particular spaces. He takes inspiration from the environments he lives in, observing their history of relationships, feelings, memories and dreams. Through painting and photo collage, the artist creates associations of abstract forms that operate in multiple dimensions of time and space. “History is an anthill of possible paths, and one must find those pathways where one can wander in one’s own history,” writes the artist in one of his monographs. Bonnen’s show features a selection of recent paintings that depict dynamic compositions of order and disorder. “We are processes, evolutionary shadows in an almost endless history we cannot comprehend,” writes the artist. “Still, we build small houses, which can accommodate each of our histories.”
■ Nunu Fine Art (路由藝術), 5, Ln 67, Jinshan S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市金山南路一段67巷5號), tel: (02) 3322-6207. Open Wednesdays to Sundays from noon to 7pm
■ Until June 30
Photo Courtesy of Galerie Grande Siecle
Hou I-ting (侯怡亭) is a Taipei-based artist who works in video, performance and photography. Her practice often focuses on the labor of women, delving into both personal and collective stories as well as the socio-political context of the female workforce in Taiwan. In Cold Chain (冷鍊), currently on view at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (台北市立美術館), Hou presents a three-part narrative that juxtaposes labor operations from different time periods. The title refers to a standard system in logistics supply that requires temperature-controlled environments maintained through an operational network of raw material suppliers, processing factories, storage facilities and transportation units. The artist borrows this concept to allude to the nature of governance in modern society. The first section focuses on production lines in female prisons and involves an artist-initiated workshop. The second section displays a selection of archival photographs depicting students in an all girls school participating in a number of activities to support the Japanese military during World War II, including marine education, professional training and the making of comfort bags for Japanese soldiers. The third section examines the current trend towards outsourcing labor in the general context of global economic systems.
■ 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 21
Photo Courtesy of Galerie Grande Siecle
As part of the Curator’s Incubator Program at the Museum (策展人培力@美術館), supported by the National Culture and Arts Foundation (國家文化藝術基金會), curator Wang Han-fang (王韓芳) presents Mercurial Boundaries (即溶生活), a group exhibition currently on view at the Museum of National Taipei University of Education (北師美術館). Eight artists and groups from Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Czech Republic examine the connection between the Internet and human memory. In the curatorial text, Wang defines memory as a mediator between the human psyche and the body, and considers online data records as a new kind of human memory. Such records, stored outside of the human body, are often collected for big data operations for the benefit of analyzing consumer behavior. The show seeks to respond to current issues between human and data, memory and body and digital devices.
■ Museum of National University of Education (北師美術館), 134 Heping E Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市和平東路二段134號), tel: (02) 2732-4084. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 5pm
■ Until June 23
Photo Courtesy of Nunu Fine Art
Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (關渡美術館) presents The Power of My Smile (我的笑容力量), a solo exhibition by Berlin-based Taiwanese artist Musquiqui Chihying (致穎). Chihying employs installation, drawing and video to explore the relationship between human survival and the state of our environment in the age of global capitalism. The title refers to the slogan of a famous toothpaste brand that advertises a particular aesthetic of the face. The artist reflects on the history of portraiture in art history and how images of the face in mass media have affected the Asian psyche. The show examines the collections of African masks held by Europeans, their role in cultural consumption and how their ideologies and methodologies have affected the new powerhouse of Asian collectors that have emerged in recent decades. Show highlights include The Toothpaste (牙膏), a series of black and white photographs that depict two common toothpaste brands in Taiwan; and The Mask (偽面具), a sound installation that reflects on the culture of art collecting.
■ Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (關渡美術館), 1 Xueyuan Rd, Taipei City (台北市學園路1號), tel: (02) 2896-1000 X 2432. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 5pm
■ Until June 30
Photo Courtesy of Kuandu Museum of Fine Art
LUPA is a Taiwanese artist, fashion designer and musician with a background in embroidery design. She works between the field of art and design and is particularly interested in combining different techniques and mediums. In 2015 Lupa and graphic designer Larry came together to create fashion label Ponyo Porco, which features dreamy, hand-drawn patterns on clothing. LUPA is currently holding a solo exhibition of her paintings, sculpture and artist books at Galerie Grande Siecle (新苑藝術). Raven Strands & White Dreams (青絲白夢) features works that are more subdued in tone compared to her prior works of exuberant color. Inspired by her experience of becoming a mother, the exhibition is somewhat autobiographical and reflects an introspective journey of motherhood. The paintings, created on traditional xuan paper, show layers of colors stacked upon each other, paired with delicate strokes that depict an imaginative space of tranquility and fantasy. A series of ceramic pieces are also on view, painted with warm narratives of innocence and joy.
■ Galerie Grand Siecle (新苑藝術), 17, Alley 51, Ln 12, Bade Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市八德路三段12巷51弄17號), tel: (02) 2578-5630. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 6pm
■ Until June 1
Photo Courtesy of Taipei Fine Arts Museum
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
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
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