An online design magazine on Tuesday chose Taiwan’s pavilion at the London Design Biennale as one of the top 10 displays among the entries from 43 countries and territories.
Themed “Invisible Calls,” the Taiwan pavilion presents work by two new-media artists.
The display is worth seeing, Dezeen design editor Augusta Pownall said in her review of the 10 best installations at the show, which opened on Tuesday.
Photo: CNA
The first display by Wu Cheng-chang (吳政璋) plays on three tandem screens, and visitors should be sure to walk past the easy-to-miss gray curtain into the second room, where a film by Hsu Che-yu (許哲瑜) is screening, Pownall wrote.
“The work lays animation over real-life footage to tell the story of two events that happened in the artist’s hometown through his brother’s reaction to them; one an incident where teenagers murdered each other, the other a severed female head being found in the river,” Pownall said.
“Drawing on the practice of animating recent news events and posting them online that is widespread in Taiwanese media, the artist combines the memory of the forensic illustrator tasked with drawing the severed head with that of his brother,” Pownall said.
Pavilion curator Su Cheng-pu (蘇承璞) on Thursday said that the installations echo the biennale’s theme, “Emotional States,” and manifest a tendency in Asian society to suppress emotion.
The artists depict different emotions from various perspectives, from macro and micro observations, to explicitness and implicitness, Su said.
Wu, an assistant professor of visual communication design at Ling Tung University in Taichung, said it was the first time he created a work with three screens, which he titled The Noise Project of Scenic Landscape in Taiwan.
The installation depicts his observations of how Taiwanese culture, the habits of Taiwanese, and the political and economic development of the nation have affected the environment, he said.
He used lights to convey emotions and reflect the theme of the exhibition, Wu added.
The second edition of the biennale is being held until Sept. 23 at Somerset House.
Biennale chief executive Sumantro Ghose said many of the entries this year speak of cultural identity and a sense of belonging.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost