In The Adventures in Mount Yu (玉山迷蹤), a series of collage-like paintings in two parts, Tu Pei-shih (杜珮詩) ponders the role social movements play in the development of a Taiwanese consciousness. The first part imagines a post-nuclear Taiwanese landscape where the inhabitants live under a totalitarian regime that only allows drinking, eating, sex and the viewing of news. The second part examines social movements that have formed in the wake of recent events, such as the expropriation of farmland in Miaoli County’s Dapu Borough (大埔). Though Tu says she is not primarily concerned with social activism, her paintings convey a superficial, stylized and trivial world — one that is meant to characterize the era in which she lives.
■ Project Fulfill Art Space (就在藝術中心), 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). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2707-6942
■ Opening reception on Sunday at 4pm. Until Dec. 5
Photo courtesy of Project Fulfill Art Space
Japanese artist Kiriko Iida’s series of new works offers viewers a glimpse of a dreamy world where the conflict between immortality and transience plays out. Iida’s work, reminiscent of the stylized paintings of Gustav Klimt, but with a manga bent, often feature prepubescent beings in a natural environment.
■ Soka Art Center (索卡藝術中心), 2F, 57, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段57號2樓). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm. Tel: (02) 2570-0390
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 4pm. Until Nov. 28
If you didn’t get a chance to check out the magnificent ornithological photos by John&Fish — the moniker for Sung Yi-chang (宋宜璋) and Hsiao Tsun-hsien (蕭尊賢) — earlier this summer at TIVAC, now is your opportunity to do so at Sincewell Gallery. The oddly titled exhibit, Aboriginal Elf of Taiwan (台灣的原鄉精靈), includes 24 of their works shot over the past year.
■ Sincewell Gallery (新思惟人文空間), 2F, 37 Mingjhe Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市明哲路37號2樓). Open daily from noon to 10pm. Tel: (07) 345-2699
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 2:30pm. Until Dec. 5
Health Art & Taiwan Models (健康藝術之線形) & (台灣身體‧模朵) is an exhibit by Peter Lee (李春信) and Tsou Sung-ho (鄒松鶴). Lee combines the ideas that underpin Chinese medicine with Confucian philosophy to create paintings of the human form that are meant to soothe the soul — hence “health art.” Tsou’s abstract three-dimensional sculptures are inspired by the female form.
■ Chung Yuan Christian University Art Center (中原大學藝術中心), 200 Jhongbei Rd, Jhongli City, Taoyuan County (桃園縣中壢市中北路200號). Open Mondays to Fridays from 10am to 6pm and Saturdays and Sundays from 1pm to 5pm. Tel: (03) 265-1261
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 12:30pm. Until Nov. 28
Ukiyo-e, a Japanese term meaning “pictures of the floating world,” is an art movement that flourished during the colorful urban culture of Edo (today’s Tokyo) in the late 17th century and continued up until the 20th century. Beauties and Landscapes of the Floating World: Ukiyo-e From the Museum’s Collection (美人美景‧浮世風情－館藏浮世繪展) displays 40 Ukiyo-e prints from the National Museum of History’s permanent collection that were donated by the artist Tadashi Goino in 1998. Divided into four parts — Beauties; Landscapes; Actors; and Scenes from the Tale of Genji — the exhibit provides an excellent introduction to this distinctively Japanese style of art.
■ National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館), 49 Nanhai Rd, Taipei City (台北市南海路49號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2361-0270. General admission is NT$30
■ Until Dec. 26
VT Art Salon is currently holding an exhibit by two artists that might appeal to people who play video games too much. Tsai Tsung-yu’s (蔡宗祐) series of representational paintings, Master Online (主人Online), looks at the otaku lifestyle, particularly the cheerless living environments of these “home boys.” Chou Tai-chun (周代焌), a self-described video game addict, creates paintings that are “flat, shallow, slightly violent but not really harmful.” His Rear Area (大後方) seeks to show how the lack of transparency in a hyper-wired world results in ignorant citizens incapable of criticizing their political and economic masters.
■ VT Art Salon (非常廟藝文空間), B1, 47 Yitong St, Taipei City (台北市伊通街47號B1). Open Tuesdays to Thursdays 2pm to 11pm, Fridays and Saturdays from 2pm to 1am. Tel: (02) 2516-1060
■ Until Nov. 27
The Nuremberg trials have inspired filmmakers before, from Stanley Kramer’s 1961 drama to the 2000 television miniseries with Alec Baldwin and Brian Cox. But for the latest take, Nuremberg, writer-director James Vanderbilt focuses on a lesser-known figure: The US Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, who after the war was assigned to supervise and evaluate captured Nazi leaders to ensure they were fit for trial (and also keep them alive). But his is a name that had been largely forgotten: He wasn’t even a character in the miniseries. Kelley, portrayed in the film by Rami Malek, was an ambitious sort who saw in
It’s always a pleasure to see something one has long advocated slowly become reality. The late August visit of a delegation to the Philippines led by Deputy Minister of Agriculture Huang Chao-ching (黃昭欽), Chair of Chinese International Economic Cooperation Association Joseph Lyu (呂桔誠) and US-Taiwan Business Council vice president, Lotta Danielsson, was yet another example of how the two nations are drawing closer together. The security threat from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), along with their complementary economies, is finally fostering growth in ties. Interestingly, officials from both sides often refer to a shared Austronesian heritage when arguing for
Late last month the Executive Yuan approved a proposal from the Ministry of Labor to allow the hospitality industry to recruit mid-level migrant workers. The industry, surveys said, was short 6,600 laborers. In reality, it is already heavily using illegal foreign workers — foreign wives of foreign residents who cannot work, runaways and illegally moonlighting factory workers. The proposal thus merely legalizes what already exists. The government could generate a similar legal labor supply simply by legalizing moonlighting and permitting spouses of legal residents to work legally on their current visa. But after 30 years of advocating for that reform,
Among the Nazis who were prosecuted during the Nuremberg trials in 1945 and 1946 was Hitler’s second-in-command, Hermann Goring. Less widely known, though, is the involvement of the US psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, who spent more than 80 hours interviewing and assessing Goring and 21 other Nazi officials prior to the trials. As described in Jack El-Hai’s 2013 book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, Kelley was charmed by Goring but also haunted by his own conclusion that the Nazis’ atrocities were not specific to that time and place or to those people: they could in fact happen anywhere. He was ultimately
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