First Exit Existence I (真實的存在 I), an exhibition of work by Tsui Yung-yen (崔永嬿) and Tsui Hui-yu (崔惠宇), kicks off a three-part series of sculpture shows at Aki Gallery that runs until the end of July. Tsui Yung-yen’s realist sculptures depict characters from fairy tales that question the role of women in contemporary society. Tsui Hui-yu’s large-scale sculptures made from dyed fabric look like abstract tapestries.
■ Aki Gallery (也趣藝廊), 141 Minzu W Rd, Taipei City (台北市民族西路141號), tel: (02) 2599-1171. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 6:30pm
■ Opening reception on Saturday at 3pm. Until June 10
Photo courtesy of Soka Art Center
Vision (索卡視界) is a wide-ranging exhibition of painting from Taiwan and China and covers the major artistic styles of the genre in the 20th century, including landscapes by Lin Fengmian (林風眠), abstract expressionist works by Zao Wou-ki (趙無極) and Chu Teh-chun (朱德群) and conceptual works by Cai Guoqiang (蔡國強) and Xu Bing (徐冰), who draw on traditional materials to examine contemporary themes.
■ 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), tel: (02) 2570-0390. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm
■ Until July 1
Jade, agate, sandstone, granite and marble are among the many materials Chen Pei-tse (陳培澤) uses to create sculptures that riff off Neolithic carvings. But Sharpening the Sense of Life (如切如磋。斯土斯懷) isn’t simply a retrospective of 30 works with its gaze fixed on the distant past. Chen also incorporates technology into his work, the forms of which show his “rethinking of nature and culture,” according to the museum’s press release.
■ National Museum of History (國立歷史博物館), 49 Nanhai Rd, Taipei City (台北市南海路49號), tel: (02) 2361-0270. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. General admission: NT$30
■ Until June 24
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, is currently displaying the short-listed works for this year’s Taishin Arts Award (台新藝術獎), an annual competition that gives out over NT$1 million in prize money. This year’s exhibit includes documentaries, photos and films of 10 performance group finalists, including Ju Percussion Group (朱宗慶打擊樂團) and Riverbed Theater (河床劇團), and five pieces of visual art, including Tsai Ming-liang’s (蔡明亮) video Theater in the Boiler (鍋爐裡的劇場), Yao Jui-chung’s (姚瑞中) Mirage (海市蜃樓—台灣閒置公共設施攝影計劃) and Wu Dar-kuen’s (吳達坤) After the Republic of China — Nobody’s Republic (後民國—沒人共和國).
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, (台北當代藝術館), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號), tel: (02) 2552-3721. Open daily from 10am to 6pm, closed on Mondays. Admission: NT$50
■ Until June 17
Embracing Fantasy (藝想天開) is an exhibition of contemporary ceramics by 15 Taiwanese artists and nine from the US, Japan, Holland, Switzerland, Belgium, France and New Zealand. Chen Ching-jung (陳景容), Lee Chin-sheng (李金生) and Chris Weaver focus on the expression of emotions that are a product of their own life experiences, while Wu Chien-fu (吳建福) and Deborah Sigel use ceramics to give voice to their concerns about the environment. Angela Burkhardt-Guallini, Jean-Francois Fouilhoux and Chen Shih-han (陳實涵) take traditional techniques as their starting point, but introduce innovations and new breakthroughs. Taken together, the exhibition demonstrates the variety of shapes, styles, glazes and techniques embraced by contemporary ceramic artists across the globe.
■ Yingge Ceramics Museum (鶯歌陶瓷博物館), 200 Wenhua Rd, Yingge Dist, New Taipei City (新北市鶯歌區文化路200號), tel: (02) 8677-2727. Open daily from 9:30am to 5pm. Closes at 6pm on Saturdays and Sundays
■ Until July 1
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
RSS