Michael Lin (林明弘) strays from his usual floral motifs that cover entire gallery walls and buildings with his latest solo exhibition New Paradise (新樂園), held in Taipei’s Eslite Gallery. Instead, this series of paintings — made over the last 10 years during his residency in Shanghai — depicts consumer items such as the old logo for a pack of Taiwan’s New Paradise cigarettes (新樂園) or the packaging for Yunnan Puer Tea (雲南普洱茶). Lin, who has lived in Taiwan, France, Belgium, the US and China, considers both consumerism and locality in his work. Who are the types of people who purchase these items? How do these items that we consume contribute to our feelings of belonging or national identity?
■ Eslite Gallery (誠品畫廊), 5F, 11 Songgao Rd, Taipei City (台北市松高路11號5樓), tel: (02) 8789-3388. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Dec. 4
Photo courtesy of Art Issue Projects
Currently on display at MOCA is Polymerization & Multiply (聚合與繁衍). The joint exhibition features the works of video artists Robert Seidel and Max Hattler from Germany and Matt Abbiss from the UK. Seidel’s “moving paintings” — blotches of neon paint swimming against a black backdrop — are created through a series of scientific processes. Deriving inspiration from early 20th-century visual music experiments, Hattler plays with both sound and imagery, the result of which is kaleidoscope-like images bopping, morphing and changing form to various beats. Abiss’s work is somewhat less abstract. The pop culture junkie had a career as a cartoonist before delving into animation and his cute and quirky comics still feature in his animated clips.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (台北當代藝術館, 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
■ Until Dec. 4
Photo courtesy of Art Issue Projects
Chiu Chen-hung (邱承宏) makes use of the natural environment surrounding the Xindian River by Treasure Hill Artist Village for his latest exhibition. Named after the fast-growing weed, Mile-a-Minute Weed (河流砂) is a series of installations that explores the entangled relationship between humans and nature, as well as narrative structures — in particular, historical narratives. Native to Central America, the plant was introduced to Asia during World War II for the purpose of camouflaging airfield hangers. Chiu looks back at the history of Treasure Hill, most notably its use as a military base and how its inhabitants would later rebuild their lives there.
■ Treasure Hill Artist Village (寶藏巖國際藝術村), 2, Ally 14, Ln 230, Dingzhou Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市汀州路三段230巷14弄2號), tel: (02) 2364-5313. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6pm
■ Until Dec. 4
Photo courtesy of MOCA
The Parisian-born Ivan Gros has lived a nomadic life, moving from France and Spain to Saudi Arabia and eventually to Taiwan in 2009 to study Chinese and teach French. His prints, inspired by his travels around the world, are on display at printmaking shop MBMore. 33 Tours (三十三座塔) includes a collection of Gros’ prints made during his time in Taiwan — mostly everyday depictions of people and families in scenes ranging from parks to construction sites, as well as iconic places like the hot springs in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) and beaches on Orchid Island.
■ MBMore (岩筆模), 275, Nanjing W Rd, Taipei City (台北市南京西路275號), tel: (02) 2558-3395. Open Tuesday to Sundays from 11am to 7pm
■ Until Dec. 18
Photo courtesy of MBMore
On display at Art Issue Projects is Innercode vs Intercode (存在關係), a stellar lineup of works including Damien Hirst’s morbid sculptures, Marc Quinn’s psychedelic and suggestive paintings and South Korean artist Lee U-fan’s minimalistic-style paintings of blue lines. Lee was one of the pivotal figures in the development of the monochrome painting movement beginning in South Korea in the 1970s. The artistic style arose out of a need to reinterpret contemporary Western art through the lens of Korea’s own history and culture. The exhibition’s title alludes to a need to look deep within ourselves (“inner”), but also to see connections between ourselves and others and among different cultures (“inter).
■ Art Issue Projects (藝術計劃), 32, Ln 407, Tiding Blvd Sec 2, Taipei City (台北市堤頂大道二段407巷32號), tel: (02) 2659-7737. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6pm
■ Until Dec. 31
Photo courtesy of MBMore
Photo courtesy of Eslite Gallery
Photo courtesy of Eslite Gallery
Sifting through the last week or so of writing on Taiwan in the major media, the original title of this piece was going to be “Three Cheesy Pieces.” But in truth, the flow of effluent from the media exceeds my ability to represent it in a single pithy headline. It seems that the output of bad writing on Taiwan is equal to the square of the amount of attention our island nation receives. TRIFECTA OF TURGIDITY Leading off a terrible 10-day of prose on Taiwan was the The Economist’s piece, “The Most Dangerous Place on Earth” with Taiwan on the cover. The
Who would have thought that Taiwan — just over 100km from China and a few hundred kilometers away from Vietnam, which are the world’s first and second biggest consumers of pangolin scales — would become the last beacon of hope for this imperiled species? In fact, pangolins — from sub-species in Africa all the way down to Indonesia — are the world’s most highly trafficked mammal. Thought to cure anything from HIV to hangovers, ground pangolin scales and pangolin soup (the photos online are difficult to stomach) are expensive delicacies in Vietnam and China, and the rarer the species becomes,
May 10 to May 16 Many elderly people wept as the crowds flooded Raohe Street (饒河街) on May 11, 1987. It had been over a decade since the street was this busy, the Minsheng Daily (民生報) reported. Locals set up altars along the way, praying that the grand opening of the Raohe Street Night Market would reverse their fortunes. It was Taipei’s first night market with government-mandated traffic control hours, banning cars from 5pm to midnight. “This is a great way to manage a night market, and other locales should follow suit,” the article stated. There were still some kinks to
People living in Taiwan’s cities hope for many things. Some might put cheaper housing or quieter neighbors at the top of their wish-list. Quite a few surely dream of more orderly, less congested roads. To get an international perspective — and find out what a specialist thinks could be done to make driving and riding less stressful and the streets safer — I reached out to Chiu Bing-yu (邱秉瑜), a PhD student in City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania. Chiu’s research focuses on how the supply of public transportation and land-use planning affect travel behavior, with particular attention
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