Three Places: for Marguerite Duras, 2003 to 2006 (三個地方：致瑪格麗特．莒哈絲) is an exhibition at TKG+ Projects by artist Yeh Wei-li (葉偉立) that pays tribute to his favorite writer, Marguerite Duras. The late French writer was born in Indochina (present-day Vietnam) and frequently wrote about the intertwining themes of love (especially forbidden love) and loss, a predicament cleverly played out in Yeh’s series of iridescently-lit paintings which line the walls of TKG+. The images of empty rooms and spaces create a sense of eerie calm, mirroring scenes from Duras’ short story The Atlantic Man, when a woman cleans her lover’s apartment after his funeral.
■ TKG+ Projects, B1, 15, Ln 548, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路548巷15號B1), tel: (02) 2659-0798. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Feb. 5
Photo courtesy of ArtDoor Gallery
It’s been a chilly couple of days, but the bright colors from artwork by Malaysian artists are warming up the walls of ArtDoor Gallery in their latest exhibition, Malaysian Contemporary Art Collection (馬來西雅當代藝術收藏展). Included in the line-up are the surrealist-style paintings of Chin Kong-yee (陳剛毅) depicting typical street scenes from busy intersections in Kuala Lumpur, as well as famous monuments and sites from his travels around the world. Chin paints from a bird’s eye view, which has the effect of peering into a narrow kaleidoscope. The purpose, he says, is to show that nothing in this world is stagnant, that people and places are always changing and evolving. And what better metaphor to choose than a bird — a creature that’s always on the go? Also on display are Adeputra Masri’s elaborate paintings of wayang kulit (shadow puppet) characters from Javanese folklore, reimagined in present-day situations. His paintings are intentionally two-dimensional, alluding to the theatrical stage where the puppet shows are performed. Saiful Razman’s pop art-style work and Fendy Zakri’s abstract paintings are also featured in the exhibition.
■ ArtDoor Gallery (藝境畫廊) 639, Ruiguang Rd, Taipei City (台北市瑞光路639號), tel: (02) 2658-5268. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Feb. 28
Photo courtesy of Aura Gallery
Two stunning photography exhibitions open at Taipei’s Aura Gallery tomorrow: Japan 1982 (日本1982) by Yilan-born Taiwanese artist Juan I-jong (阮義忠) and Taipei Kissyo (台北吉祥) by Tokyo-born Japanese artist Suda Issei. Both artists are well-known for capturing scenes of everyday life in their respective countries, especially shots of commuters coming and going on busy streets. In the early ‘80s, Juan traveled to Tokyo and Issei traveled to Taipei. Juan’s black-and-white photographs of Tokyo, which depict a bleak and grimy reality in the form of people hunched over in phone booths and others breezing past, foreshadow what would become the rigidity of city life in the Japanese capital decades later. Issei’s photographs of people with big hair and colorful clothes, by contrast, illustrate the gritty euphoria of 1980s Taipei on the brink of something great, notably economic prosperity.
■ Aura Gallery Taipei (亦安畫廊台北), 313, Dunhua N Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段313號); tel: (02) 2752-7002. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 12pm to 7pm
■ Opens tomorrow. Until March 12
Photo courtesy of Taipei Fine Arts Museum
The Taipei Fine Arts Museum is currently featuring yet another exhibition that challenges the perceived realm of what’s considered to be traditional “fine art.” The Way Things Go (物 ．理) is a joint exhibition consisting of several artists from around the world, all of whom dabble in installation, sound and interactive art. Visitors will see Nicholas Hanna’s Bubble Device, which, you guessed it, blows giant bubbles out of a giant bubble-blowing machine. Also on display is Tseng Wei-hao’s (曾偉豪) Talking Forest, an installation that uses electricity-conducting pencils and pens to emit sounds using a feedback loop. The sounds are produced in sync with images projected on a wall. Through intermixing art with other disciplines, the purpose of the exhibition is to challenge the way the human brain is wired to look at things.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM, 台北市立美術館), 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei (台北市中山北路三段181號), tel: (02) 2595-7656. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 9:30am to 5:30pm and until 8:30pm on Saturdays
■ Until April 17
Photo courtesy of Taipei Fine Arts Museum
The National Palace Museum rarely disappoints. Currently on display is Precious as the Morning Star: 12th-14th Century Celadons in the Qing Court Collection (貴似晨星—清宮傳世12至14世紀青瓷特展). As the title of the exhibition suggests, the museum is housing a rare collection of green celadon ware made during the Song Dynasty. These precious pieces of pottery, including bowls and water pitchers, once belonged in the chambers of the imperial court of the Qing Dynasty. An excavation in 1998 of Tiger Cave Kiln (老虎洞窯) in Zhejiang Province confirmed that, yes, the celadon ware was indeed deemed highly valuable, and that those who lived in the imperial court liked to be surrounded by pretty things.
■ National Palace Museum (國立故宮博物院), 221 Zhishan Rd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市至善路二段221號), tel: (02) 2881-2021. Open daily from 9am to 5pm
■ Until April 18
Taiwan, once relegated to the backwaters of international news media and viewed as a subset topic of “greater China,” is now a hot topic. Words associated with Taiwan include “invasion,” “contingency” and, on the more cheerful side, “semiconductors” and “tourism.” It is worth noting that while Taiwanese companies play important roles in the semiconductor industry, there is no such thing as a “Taiwan semiconductor” or a “Taiwan chip.” If crucial suppliers are included, the supply chain is in the thousands and spans the globe. Both of the variants of the so-called “silicon shield” are pure fantasy. There are four primary drivers
Japan is celebrated for its exceptional levels of customer service. But the behavior of a growing number of customers and clients leaves a lot to be desired. The rise of the abusive consumer has prompted authorities in Tokyo to introduce the country’s first ordinance — a locally approved regulation — to protect service industry staff from kasuhara — the Japanese abbreviated form of “customer harassment.” While the Tokyo ordinance, which will go into effect in April, does not carry penalties, experts hope the move will highlight a growing social problem and, perhaps, encourage people to think twice before taking out their frustrations
Two years ago my wife and I went to Orchid Island off Taitung for a few days vacation. We were shocked to realize that for what it cost us, we could have done a bike vacation in Borneo for a week or two, or taken another trip to the Philippines. Indeed, most of the places we could have gone for that vacation in neighboring countries offer a much better experience than Taiwan at a much lower price. Hence, the recent news showing that tourist visits to Pingtung County’s Kenting, long in decline, reached a 27 year low this summer came
From a Brooklyn studio that looks like a cross between a ransacked Toys R Us and a serial killer’s lair, the artist David Henry Nobody Jr is planning the first survey of his career. Held by a headless dummy strung by its heels from the ceiling are a set of photographs from the turn of the century of a then 30-year-old Nobody with the former president of the US. The snapshots are all signed by Donald Trump in gold pen (Nobody supplied the pen). They will be a central piece of the New York artist’s upcoming survey in New York. This
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