The mounds of fleshy objects found in the staged photographs of Spanish artist Ignasi Cunhill, who created them as part of his artist residence at the Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (關渡美術館), look like a genetic experiment gone horribly wrong. Are they human? Animal? A combination of both? The images, collectively titled Homo Sapiens, are made doubly alarming by juxtaposing these grotesques with unremarkable and benign still life elements. Combined, the photographs “metaphorically link the human to the cultural monster, deformed by an overdose of impositions that have affected even its genetic integrity,” according to the museum’s press statement. Don’t look at them for too long because they will probably give you nightmares.
■ 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) 2893-8870. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 5pm
■ Begins Friday. Until April 13
Photo courtesy of Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts
Long Live/Landscape (萬歲/山水) is a two-part solo exhibition of Yao Jui-chung’s (姚瑞中) recent work. In Landscape, the first segment, Yao subverts the rules underlying traditional Chinese ink painting from the Song to Qing dynasties by embedding himself and his family into the works as a means of closing the temporal distance between contemporary aesthetics and the classical past. Long Life, the second section, is an installation that takes Taiwan’s authoritarian past as its central theme, which is used to reflect on the present. According to the gallery’s press release, “Yao is critical of the national spirit of Taiwan, as he contemplates whether the island has moved beyond its past, or if it remains haunted by the ghost of history — only to continue and repeat itself.”
■ Tina Keng Gallery (耿畫廊), 15, Ln 548, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路548巷15號), tel: (02) 2659-0798. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 7pm
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 4:30pm. Until April 29
Photo courtesy of Lin & Lin Gallery
Chinese artist Leng Bingchuan (冷冰川) reinterprets the shape of flowers and Chinese musical instruments through the visual language of Western expressionism in About Simple (至素樸). Leng’s paintings juxtapose layers of impasto earthy forms with dark solid spaces that provide an area for the viewer to reflect on the harmonious relationship between art, music and nature.
■ Lin & Lin Gallery (大未來林舍畫廊), 16 Dongfeng St, Taipei City, (台北市東豐街16號), tel: (02) 2700-6866. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 4pm. Until April 29
Meet Mexican Picasso is a solo exhibit of paintings by Mexican artist Byron Galvez. Galvez, as you may have already guessed, is considered the Picasso of Mexico because of his Cubist figures — though many of the paintings on view at Jia Art Gallery (家畫廊) move closer to abstraction and are rendered in strong hues of pink, malachite and orange. More commonly known for his sculptures of human figures and large-scale installations, this exhibit is an ideal introduction to the artist’s painting.
■ Jia Art Gallery (家畫廊), 1F-1, 30, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市中山北路三段30號1樓之1), tel: (02) 2591-4302. Open daily from 10am to 6pm
■ Opening reception on Sunday at 2pm. Until June 3
“We had believed that it’s an age of democracy and equality, but today we confront absurd, unfair and unacceptable things that nevertheless can be legalized,” states the publicity material from Sincere Subversion (不頑之抗), a group exhibit at VT Art Salon. So, democracy sucks — and don’t get them started on the art world, which is “hypocritical and snobbish.” The 16 exhibiting artists, including Yang Mao-lin (楊茂林), Yao Jui-chung (姚瑞中) and Tsai Shih-hung (蔡士弘), employ video installation and sculpture to “demonstrate that their amusing manners could be inspiring and powerful,” and serve as a corrective to the “invisible powers” controlling our lives, whether aesthetically or politically. So what “amusing manners” will the exhibit use as a tonic? Sarcasm, of course, which can be “profound and distressing. After all, it is art.”
■ 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), tel: (02) 2516-1060. Open Tuesdays through Thursdays from 1:30pm to 9pm, and Fridays and Saturdays from 1:30pm to 10pm
■ Until April 21
The Taipei Times last week reported that the rising share of seniors in the population is reshaping the nation’s housing markets. According to data from the Ministry of the Interior, about 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident. H&B Realty chief researcher Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨), quoted in the article, said that there is rising demand for elderly-friendly housing, including units with elevators, barrier-free layouts and proximity to healthcare services. Hsu and others cited in the article highlighted the changing family residential dynamics, as children no longer live with parents,
It is jarring how differently Taiwan’s politics is portrayed in the international press compared to the local Chinese-language press. Viewed from abroad, Taiwan is seen as a geopolitical hotspot, or “The Most Dangerous Place on Earth,” as the Economist once blazoned across their cover. Meanwhile, tasked with facing down those existential threats, Taiwan’s leaders are dying their hair pink. These include former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), among others. They are demonstrating what big fans they are of South Korean K-pop sensations Blackpink ahead of their concerts this weekend in Kaohsiung.
Oct 20 to Oct 26 After a day of fighting, the Japanese Army’s Second Division was resting when a curious delegation of two Scotsmen and 19 Taiwanese approached their camp. It was Oct. 20, 1895, and the troops had reached Taiye Village (太爺庄) in today’s Hunei District (湖內), Kaohsiung, just 10km away from their final target of Tainan. Led by Presbyterian missionaries Thomas Barclay and Duncan Ferguson, the group informed the Japanese that resistance leader Liu Yung-fu (劉永福) had fled to China the previous night, leaving his Black Flag Army fighters behind and the city in chaos. On behalf of the
I was 10 when I read an article in the local paper about the Air Guitar World Championships, which take place every year in my home town of Oulu, Finland. My parents had helped out at the very first contest back in 1996 — my mum gave out fliers, my dad sorted the music. Since then, national championships have been held all across the world, with the winners assembling in Oulu every summer. At the time, I asked my parents if I could compete. At first they were hesitant; the event was in a bar, and there would be a lot
RSS