Photographer Isa Ho (何孟娟) will be showcasing two ongoing series in a solo exhibition titled Not The Chelsea Hotel (黑天鵝效應). Ho has been working on “Westbeth” for the past four years, where she has carefully documented the daily lives of elderly artists at Westbeth Artist Housing in New York City. In her more recent series titled “My Peony Pavilion,” Ho fuses traditional kunqu opera imagery with that of Korean pop music. This re-appropriation of cultures explores issues such as the cultural gap between generations and female identity.
■ Double Square Gallery (?方藝廊), 28 Lane 770, Beian Road, Taipei City (台北市北安路770巷28號), tel: (02) 8501-2138. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10:30am to 6:30pm.
■ Opens tomorrow. Until September 16
Photo courtesy of Yiri Arts Pier-2
Lee Chin-ming’s (李錦明) bright acrylic paintings depict stories of dark humor, a style he calls “abject expressionism.” The title of his solo show SO IT GOES is a oft-repeated phrase from Kurt Vonnegut’s morbidly comical novel Slaughterhouse-Five. By referencing Vonnegut, Lee wishes to convey the power of humor under any circumstances while questioning whether people have the ability to decide their own fate.
■ Galerie Grand Siecle (新苑藝術), 17, Alley 51, Ln 12, Bade Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市八德路三段12巷51弄17號), tel: (02) 2578-5630. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 6pm
■ Until August 5
Photo courtesy of Taipei Artist Village
Liu Yao-Chung (劉耀中) is known for his carefully planned and thought out works that are visually and conceptually succinct but powerful. Overlook Hotel by the Sea (海邊的全景飯店) features new pieces made after his residency in Perth, Australia last summer at a secluded location surrounded by mountains. Since the residency was located in a former mental institution, Liu looked for inspiration in the Stephen King novel, The Shining, while letting his mind wander in the jellyfish filled sea. The result of this contrasting mindset is a series of works, installations, ink on paper drawings and acrylic paintings.
■ 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 August 13
Photo courtesy of Galerie Ovo
Liao Chi-yu (廖祈羽) will display new video and installation pieces at River still, River goes (河不停流). Liao’s use of boats in her video work River symbolizes a voyage through one’s memories. Her work also touches on people’s habits while traveling, and evokes nostalgia with its old fashioned photo backdrops.
■ VT Art Salon (非常廟藝文空間), B1, 17, Ln 56, Sec 3, Xinsheng N Rd, Taipei City (台北市新生北路三段56巷17號B1), tel: (02) 2597-2525. Open Tuesdays to Fridays from 11:30am to 7pm, and Saturdays from 1:30pm to 9pm
■ Until August 12
Photo courtesy of Galerie Grand Siecle
Chinese artist Chen Qiaoxi (陳俏汐) uses a wide selection of media in her exhibition Penumbra (灰度), such as bronze sculptures, photography, prints on vinyl, and acrylic on paper. Her research explores how meaning and language changes according to the medium.
■ Galerie Ovo (十方藝術空間), 51 Dehui St, Taipei City (台北市德惠街51號), tel: (02) 2591-5296. Open Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 1pm to 7pm
■ Until August 5
Photo courtesy of VT Art Salon
Lin Yi-chi’s (林羿綺) illusions, dreams, and memories are the main subject of her video and installation pieces in Dream of Amber (琥珀之夢). in a seance or cult-like setting, Lin explores subjects like love, violence, desire, death, innocence, loss, and existence as if they were ghosts from her past.
■ FreeS Art Space (福利社), B1, 82, Xinsheng N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市新生北路三段82號B1); tel: (02) 2585-7600. Open Tuesdays to Fridays from 11am to 7pm, Saturdays 1:30pm to 9pm
■ Until August 5
Photo courtesy of VT Art Salon
To Ning Sen (寧森), death is not the end of life, but rather a part of it. His exhibition Re-Die (死在展場) provides visitors with a death experience through virtual reality in hope that they “can die when they are alive and walk out of the exhibition with their own answers.” Ning was inspired to create this work when a doctor proclaimed that his grandmother only had two weeks to live. However, the grandmother did not understand the diagnosis and lived beyond the doctor’s given timeline.
■ Yiri Arts Pier-2 (伊日藝術駁二空間), Pier-2 Art Center Unit C9-14, 1 Dayong Rd, Kaohsiung City (高雄市大勇路1號駁二藝術特區大義倉群C9-14倉庫), tel: (07) 521-5783. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 7pm
■ Until August 6
On April 26, The Lancet published a letter from two doctors at Taichung-based China Medical University Hospital (CMUH) warning that “Taiwan’s Health Care System is on the Brink of Collapse.” The authors said that “Years of policy inaction and mismanagement of resources have led to the National Health Insurance system operating under unsustainable conditions.” The pushback was immediate. Errors in the paper were quickly identified and publicized, to discredit the authors (the hospital apologized). CNA reported that CMUH said the letter described Taiwan in 2021 as having 62 nurses per 10,000 people, when the correct number was 78 nurses per 10,000
May 5 to May 11 What started out as friction between Taiwanese students at Taichung First High School and a Japanese head cook escalated dramatically over the first two weeks of May 1927. It began on April 30 when the cook’s wife knew that lotus starch used in that night’s dinner had rat feces in it, but failed to inform staff until the meal was already prepared. The students believed that her silence was intentional, and filed a complaint. The school’s Japanese administrators sided with the cook’s family, dismissing the students as troublemakers and clamping down on their freedoms — with
As Donald Trump’s executive order in March led to the shuttering of Voice of America (VOA) — the global broadcaster whose roots date back to the fight against Nazi propaganda — he quickly attracted support from figures not used to aligning themselves with any US administration. Trump had ordered the US Agency for Global Media, the federal agency that funds VOA and other groups promoting independent journalism overseas, to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.” The decision suddenly halted programming in 49 languages to more than 425 million people. In Moscow, Margarita Simonyan, the hardline editor-in-chief of the
Six weeks before I embarked on a research mission in Kyoto, I was sitting alone at a bar counter in Melbourne. Next to me, a woman was bragging loudly to a friend: She, too, was heading to Kyoto, I quickly discerned. Except her trip was in four months. And she’d just pulled an all-nighter booking restaurant reservations. As I snooped on the conversation, I broke out in a sweat, panicking because I’d yet to secure a single table. Then I remembered: Eating well in Japan is absolutely not something to lose sleep over. It’s true that the best-known institutions book up faster
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