Reality Impalpable (不確定的真相) is a solo exhibition of works by Chinese artist Li Hui (李暉). Li’s light installations — including one composed of 13,000 LEDs — are meant to serve as a symbol of China’s hectic and rapidly changing society, particularly his hometown of Beijing, which is contrasted with the philosophies of Buddhism and Confucianism.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA, Taipei), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號), tel: (02) 2552-3720. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Admission: NT$50
■ Opening reception on Friday at 6pm. Until June 26
Photo courtesy of MOCA, Taipei
Return to the Essence (返本歸真) surveys Taiwan’s abstract painting scene through the work of five artists: Chu Teh-i (曲德益), Lee Shi-chi (李錫奇), Tsong Pu (莊普), Yang Chi-hung (楊識宏) and Hsueh Pao-shia (薛保瑕).
■ Red Gold Fine Art (赤粒藝術), 15, Ln 116, Da-an Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市大安路一段116巷15號), tel: (02) 8772-5887. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Opening reception on Sunday at 3pm. Until May 29
Modigliani and his Circle showcases works by and documents about Italian figurative painter Amedeo Modigliani and some of his friends and contemporaries, including Moise Kisling and Max Jacob. This is the first exhibition dedicated to Modigliani in Asia.
■ Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, 80 Meishuguan Rd, Greater Kaohsiung (高雄市美術館路80號), tel: (07) 555-0331. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9am to 5pm. Admission: NT$260
■ Until July 31
Shanghai’s influx of foreign influences toward the end of the 19th century set traditional Chinese ink painting on a new trajectory, as an exhibit of 20 works by 16 artists at 99 Degrees Art Center attempts to show. The pluralistic tradition that evolved from the merging of disparate cultures and artistic styles continues to the present day. The works on exhibit span the past 100 years and include examples by Ren Bonian (任伯年), Wu Changshuo (吳昌碩), Huang Binhong (黃賓虹) and Chang Dai-chien (張大千).
■ 99 Degrees Art Center (99度藝術中心), 5F, 259, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段259號5樓), tel: (02) 2700-3099. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6pm
■ Until May 29
The Animal’s Soliloquy (動物的獨白) presents a new series of surrealist and psychedelic paintings of animals by Johnny Leo (廖文彬). Leo’s dreamy paintings address environmental degradation.
■ Butchart Contemporary Art Space (布查當代藝術空間), 155, Linong St Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市立農街二段155號), tel: (02) 2820-9920. Open daily from 11am to 9:30pm
■ Until May 16
Sound Creature (聲音生物) is an exhibition of sound installations featuring environmental sound artist (wind, waves, water) Wang Fu-jui (王福瑞), cassette tape experimenter (classical music) Chang Yung-ta (張永達) and interactive sound installation guru Hiroko Mugibayashi from Japan, among others.
■ 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 May 8
From the last quarter of 2001, research shows that real housing prices nearly tripled (before a 2012 law to enforce housing price registration, researchers tracked a few large real estate firms to estimate housing price behavior). Incomes have not kept pace, though this has not yet led to defaults. Instead, an increasing chunk of household income goes to mortgage payments. This suggests that even if incomes grow, the mortgage squeeze will still make voters feel like their paychecks won’t stretch to cover expenses. The housing price rises in the last two decades are now driving higher rents. The rental market
July 21 to July 27 If the “Taiwan Independence Association” (TIA) incident had happened four years earlier, it probably wouldn’t have caused much of an uproar. But the arrest of four young suspected independence activists in the early hours of May 9, 1991, sparked outrage, with many denouncing it as a return to the White Terror — a time when anyone could be detained for suspected seditious activity. Not only had martial law been lifted in 1987, just days earlier on May 1, the government had abolished the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist
When life gives you trees, make paper. That was one of the first thoughts to cross my mind as I explored what’s now called Chung Hsing Cultural and Creative Park (中興文化創意園區, CHCCP) in Yilan County’s Wujie Township (五結). Northeast Taiwan boasts an abundance of forest resources. Yilan County is home to both Taipingshan National Forest Recreation Area (太平山國家森林遊樂區) — by far the largest reserve of its kind in the country — and Makauy Ecological Park (馬告生態園區, see “Towering trees and a tranquil lake” in the May 13, 2022 edition of this newspaper). So it was inevitable that industrial-scale paper making would
Hualien lawmaker Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) is the prime target of the recall campaigns. They want to bring him and everything he represents crashing down. This is an existential test for Fu and a critical symbolic test for the campaigners. It is also a crucial test for both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and a personal one for party Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫). Why is Fu such a lightning rod? LOCAL LORD At the dawn of the 2020s, Fu, running as an independent candidate, beat incumbent Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and a KMT candidate to return to the legislature representing
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