Hsieh Mu-chi (謝牧岐) is a Taiwanese painter who probes the relationship between the individual, identity, collective consciousness and history. He often references the past by quoting iconic works of art and art styles from Taiwanese art history, or portraying scenes of how daily life in Taiwan used to be for the common folk. Hsieh constantly constructs and overturns meaning, maintaining an attitude of continuous questioning. His solo exhibition, I.O.U. a Painting (我欠你的畫), at Project Fulfill Art Space (就在藝術空間), is described by the gallery as “an artistic construct of the real and the fictitious… with a tone of resignation and irony.” Using creative compositional techniques and editing methods, Hsieh’s paintings are both critical and humorous at the same time.
■ Project Fulfill Art Space (就在藝術空間), 2, Alley 45, Ln 147, Xinyi Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市信義路三段147巷45弄2號), tel: (02) 2707-6942. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 6pm
■ Begins tomorrow; until Oct. 19
Photo Courtesy of Mind Set Art Center
An ecologically-minded exhibition by Singaporean multi-disciplinary artist Robert Zhao Renhui (趙仁輝) is on view at Mind Set Art Center (安卓藝術). As an extension of his previous project, When World Collides (當世界碰撞), which was presented at last year’s Taipei Biennal, Zhao’s new work continues to focus on the changing dynamics between invasive and native species. According to his research, the relationship between the two categories is sometimes tumultuous and unstable and may result in violent encounters for reasons of competition and predation. Zhao is concerned about the human impact on nature and how urbanization since the 1950s has greatly affected the lives of animals and plants. In the past year, the artist has been investigating the conditions of a small wasteland forest in Singapore, recording animal behavior in abandoned buildings using infrared camera technology.
■ Mind Set Art Center (安卓藝術) 180, Heping E Rd, Taipei City (台北市和平東路180號), tel: (02) 2365-6008. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11am to 6pm
■ Until Oct. 12
Photo Courtesy of the artist
Ohi ware is a highly valued Japanese style of tea ceramics created with the soil from Ohi District in Japan’s Kanazawa City. As a unique craft passed down within the Ohi family since the Edo period, it is a form of raku, or traditional Japanese pottery that is hand shaped and fired at low temperatures. Toshi Ohi is the 11th generation craftsmen of his family who not only carries on his ancestral heritage, but also adds his own creative interpretations. Educated in the US, Ohi draws inspiration from East and West, and innovates within tradition. The artist’s solo exhibition, Transcend (承變), at Whitestone Gallery Taipei (白石畫廊), displays a selection of works that demonstrate the artist’s expansive oeuvre.
■ White Stone Gallery (白石畫廊), 1 Jihu Rd, Taipei City (台北市基湖路1號), tel: (02) 8751-1185. Opens Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm.
■ Until Sept. 22
Photo Courtesy of Taipei Fine Art Museum
Wu Chuan-lun (吳權倫) is a visual artist based in Tainan and Berlin. He works with a variety of media, including photography, painting and computer generated images. Wu’s exhibition, No Country for Canine, at Taipei Fine Arts Museum, uses the symbol of German Shepherds to examine issues of social class, race and prejudice. According to the press release, the German Shepherd was possibly introduced to Taiwan by the Japanese during the Japanese colonial era and generally kept by the wealthy as a symbol of authority and social status. Through drawings, porcelain and brass objects, photographs and video images, the artist draws parallels between the history of the German Shepherd in Taiwan and Germany, touching on ideas of image dissemination, breeding and national identity.
■ 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 Nov. 3
Photo Courtesy of White Stone Gallery
Chen I-hsuen (陳以軒) is an interdisciplinary artist with a background in advertising and photography. He is interested in images as a medium of communication and a portrayal of history. For his exhibition, Commissioned (委託製作), at Hong-gah Museum (鳳甲美術館), Chen presents a new collaborate project for which the artist has invited a group of fellow artists to engage in a choreographed process of labor. According to the artist, the work seeks to look at the relationship between labor and laborers especially in the context of contemporary art production in Taiwan. Chen is attentive to the conditions of local young artists, the generational conflicts they face and various means of survival. Presented as an eight-channel video, the project narrates a series of scenarios related to the nature of art production today.
■ Hong Gah Museum (鳳甲美術館), 11F, 166 Daye Rd, Taipei City (台北市大業路166號11樓), tel: (02) 2894-2272. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10:30am to 5:30pm
■ Until Oct. 6
Photo Courtesy of Honggah 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
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