It’s ironic that Liu Chih-hung’s (劉致宏) latest solo exhibition at the Barry Room in Taipei Artist Village is entitled Summer Flowers (生如夏花) as we are in the midst of yet another dreary cold front. Liu, who previously dabbled in painting and sketches, here turns to photography. The black and white images, taken during an artist residency in Japan last year, capture the subtle beauty of sakura trees in pre-blossom. The title alludes to the Indian writer Rabindranath Tagore’s poem Let Life Be Beautiful Like Summer Flowers. Like Tagore’s poem, Liu’s photographs thread beauty and despair, the real and the unreal, though the real message is one of homesickness and hope that sunnier, warmer days will come.
■ Barry Room, Taipei Artist Village (台北國際藝術村百里廳), 7 Beiping E Rd, Taipei City (台北市北平東路7號), tel: (02) 3393-7377. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm
■ Until April 17
Photo courtesy of Galerie Nichido Taipei
Got It — Not Yet (將至的腦補), a joint exhibition at the Digital Art Center, consists of humorous pieces of video art that touch on the subjects of deja vu, imagination and disorientation. For example, Chen Han-sheng’s (陳漢聲) work deals with bugs found in smartphones and other digital devices. Although these gadgets are supposed to make our lives easier, they sometimes end up causing us trouble. But instead of expressing frustration or criticizing people’s dependency on technology, Chen compiles various images of buggy or malfunctioned screens and presents them in a way that is cartoonish. Wu Ssu-hsuan’s (巫思萱) work, meanwhile, is composed of 50 robot fingers and computer mouses. It pokes fun at the way we use social media while prompting viewers to rethink the way social media shapes our habits.
■ Digital Art Center (台北數位藝術中心), 180 Fuhua Rd, Taipei City (台北市福華路180號), tel: (02) 7736-0708. Open Tuesdays too Sundays from 10am to 6pm
■ Until April 24
Photo courtesy of TKG+ Projects
Galerie Nichido Taipei is back after a brief hiatus with a group exhibition, Remaining Sceneries (劫後風景), which features the minimalistic-style works of Taiwanese artists Lin Hsien-chun (林賢俊) and Huang Pin-ling (黃品玲), and Japanese artists Shinya Imanishi and Kota Hirakawa. From Imanishi’s stencil-like oil paintings depicting vague city scenes and portraits, to Huang’s stunning cool pastel paintings inspired by her travels to places like Iceland and Paris, these works share a sense of fear and reverence towards nature. There’s a sense of time elapsing, which makes human life seem short-lived and miniscule in the grand scheme of the universe. The general feeling, however, it not fatalistic but more matter-of-fact, as if the artists are trying to say that we might as well appreciate the beauty of life while it lasts.
■ Galerie Nichido Taipei (台北日動畫廊), 3F, 57, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段57號3樓), tel: (02) 2579-8795. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until May 7
Photo courtesy of Tomio Koyama Gallery
Japanese artist Mika Ninagawa’s photographs of vibrant, bright, pop culture-inspired flowers and goldfish are currently on display at Taipei’s Museum of Contemporary Art in the aptly named exhibition, Mika Ninagawa. Ninagawa’s personality is just as boisterous and colorful as her artwork. The well-dressed artist, who also shoots commercially for Japanese fashion publications and directs music videos, is frequently seen outfitted head-to-toe in floral prints. Her photographs are not just pretty to look at though, as they also examine themes such as youth culture and eroticism (because pretty flowers are always laden with hidden meaning, and goldfish too). But really, fashionistas will love this exhibition, especially the room that’s covered with blossoming pink sakuras which provides the perfect backdrop for taking selfies.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (台北當代藝術館, MOCA), 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
■ Until May 8
Photo courtesy of Galerie Nichido Taipei
The works of Taiwan-born, US-based artist Joyce Ho (何采柔) and Taipei-based Hong Kong artist Kit Lee (李傑) are currently on display at TKG+ Projects. Everyday Hypothesis (日常假設) explores the idea of domestic bliss and finding happiness in simple everyday things — a topic that both artists have repeatedly explored in the past. Worn-out bedsheets and table cloths feature largely in Lee’s work, while Ho plays with rubber gloves, arranging them in various interlocking positions on chopping boards. Ho’s background in theater is evident in her installation, as it looks like the gloves are acting out a story. Put simply, both artists make being a homebody seem cool.
■ 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 May 15
China has begun recruiting for a planetary defense force after risk assessments determined that an asteroid could conceivably hit Earth in 2032. Job ads posted online by China’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) this week, sought young loyal graduates focused on aerospace engineering, international cooperation and asteroid detection. The recruitment drive comes amid increasing focus on an asteroid with a low — but growing — likelihood of hitting earth in seven years. The 2024 YR4 asteroid is at the top of the European and US space agencies’ risk lists, and last week analysts increased their probability
On a misty evening in August 1990, two men hiking on the moors surrounding Calvine, a pretty hamlet in Perth and Kinross, claimed to have seen a giant diamond-shaped aircraft flying above them. It apparently had no clear means of propulsion and left no smoke plume; it was silent and static, as if frozen in time. Terrified, they hit the ground and scrambled for cover behind a tree. Then a Harrier fighter jet roared into view, circling the diamond as if sizing it up for a scuffle. One of the men snapped a series of photographs just before the bizarre
Power struggles are never pretty. Fortunately, Taiwan is a democracy so there is no blood in the streets, but there are volunteers collecting signatures to recall nearly half of the legislature. With the exceptions of the “September Strife” in 2013 and the Sunflower movement occupation of the Legislative Yuan and the aftermath in 2014, for 16 years the legislative and executive branches of government were relatively at peace because the ruling party also controlled the legislature. Now they are at war. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) holds the presidency and the Executive Yuan and the pan-blue coalition led by the
For decades, Taiwan Railway trains were built and serviced at the Taipei Railway Workshop, originally built on a flat piece of land far from the city center. As the city grew up around it, however, space became limited, flooding became more commonplace and the noise and air pollution from the workshop started to affect more and more people. Between 2011 and 2013, the workshop was moved to Taoyuan and the Taipei location was retired. Work on preserving this cultural asset began immediately and we now have a unique opportunity to see the birth of a museum. The Preparatory Office of National