Hsieh Mu-chi (謝牧岐) is a Taiwanese painter who probes the relationship between the individual, identity, collective consciousness and history. He often references the past by quoting iconic works of art and art styles from Taiwanese art history, or portraying scenes of how daily life in Taiwan used to be for the common folk. Hsieh constantly constructs and overturns meaning, maintaining an attitude of continuous questioning. His solo exhibition, I.O.U. a Painting (我欠你的畫), at Project Fulfill Art Space (就在藝術空間), is described by the gallery as “an artistic construct of the real and the fictitious… with a tone of resignation and irony.” Using creative compositional techniques and editing methods, Hsieh’s paintings are both critical and humorous at the same time.
■ Project Fulfill Art Space (就在藝術空間), 2, Alley 45, Ln 147, Xinyi Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市信義路三段147巷45弄2號), tel: (02) 2707-6942. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 1pm to 6pm
■ Begins tomorrow; until Oct. 19
Photo Courtesy of Mind Set Art Center
An ecologically-minded exhibition by Singaporean multi-disciplinary artist Robert Zhao Renhui (趙仁輝) is on view at Mind Set Art Center (安卓藝術). As an extension of his previous project, When World Collides (當世界碰撞), which was presented at last year’s Taipei Biennal, Zhao’s new work continues to focus on the changing dynamics between invasive and native species. According to his research, the relationship between the two categories is sometimes tumultuous and unstable and may result in violent encounters for reasons of competition and predation. Zhao is concerned about the human impact on nature and how urbanization since the 1950s has greatly affected the lives of animals and plants. In the past year, the artist has been investigating the conditions of a small wasteland forest in Singapore, recording animal behavior in abandoned buildings using infrared camera technology.
■ Mind Set Art Center (安卓藝術) 180, Heping E Rd, Taipei City (台北市和平東路180號), tel: (02) 2365-6008. Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11am to 6pm
■ Until Oct. 12
Photo Courtesy of the artist
Ohi ware is a highly valued Japanese style of tea ceramics created with the soil from Ohi District in Japan’s Kanazawa City. As a unique craft passed down within the Ohi family since the Edo period, it is a form of raku, or traditional Japanese pottery that is hand shaped and fired at low temperatures. Toshi Ohi is the 11th generation craftsmen of his family who not only carries on his ancestral heritage, but also adds his own creative interpretations. Educated in the US, Ohi draws inspiration from East and West, and innovates within tradition. The artist’s solo exhibition, Transcend (承變), at Whitestone Gallery Taipei (白石畫廊), displays a selection of works that demonstrate the artist’s expansive oeuvre.
■ White Stone Gallery (白石畫廊), 1 Jihu Rd, Taipei City (台北市基湖路1號), tel: (02) 8751-1185. Opens Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 9pm.
■ Until Sept. 22
Photo Courtesy of Taipei Fine Art Museum
Wu Chuan-lun (吳權倫) is a visual artist based in Tainan and Berlin. He works with a variety of media, including photography, painting and computer generated images. Wu’s exhibition, No Country for Canine, at Taipei Fine Arts Museum, uses the symbol of German Shepherds to examine issues of social class, race and prejudice. According to the press release, the German Shepherd was possibly introduced to Taiwan by the Japanese during the Japanese colonial era and generally kept by the wealthy as a symbol of authority and social status. Through drawings, porcelain and brass objects, photographs and video images, the artist draws parallels between the history of the German Shepherd in Taiwan and Germany, touching on ideas of image dissemination, breeding and national identity.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (台北市立美術館, TFAM), 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 Nov. 3
Photo Courtesy of White Stone Gallery
Chen I-hsuen (陳以軒) is an interdisciplinary artist with a background in advertising and photography. He is interested in images as a medium of communication and a portrayal of history. For his exhibition, Commissioned (委託製作), at Hong-gah Museum (鳳甲美術館), Chen presents a new collaborate project for which the artist has invited a group of fellow artists to engage in a choreographed process of labor. According to the artist, the work seeks to look at the relationship between labor and laborers especially in the context of contemporary art production in Taiwan. Chen is attentive to the conditions of local young artists, the generational conflicts they face and various means of survival. Presented as an eight-channel video, the project narrates a series of scenarios related to the nature of art production today.
■ Hong Gah Museum (鳳甲美術館), 11F, 166 Daye Rd, Taipei City (台北市大業路166號11樓), tel: (02) 2894-2272. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10:30am to 5:30pm
■ Until Oct. 6
Photo Courtesy of Honggah Museum
Nine Taiwanese nervously stand on an observation platform at Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport. It’s 9:20am on March 27, 1968, and they are awaiting the arrival of Liu Wen-ching (柳文卿), who is about to be deported back to Taiwan where he faces possible execution for his independence activities. As he is removed from a minibus, a tenth activist, Dai Tian-chao (戴天昭), jumps out of his hiding place and attacks the immigration officials — the nine other activists in tow — while urging Liu to make a run for it. But he’s pinned to the ground. Amid the commotion, Liu tries to
The slashing of the government’s proposed budget by the two China-aligned parties in the legislature, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), has apparently resulted in blowback from the US. On the recent junket to US President Donald Trump’s inauguration, KMT legislators reported that they were confronted by US officials and congressmen angered at the cuts to the defense budget. The United Daily News (UDN), the longtime KMT party paper, now KMT-aligned media, responded to US anger by blaming the foreign media. Its regular column, the Cold Eye Collection (冷眼集), attacked the international media last month in
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
Feb. 10 to Feb. 16 More than three decades after penning the iconic High Green Mountains (高山青), a frail Teng Yu-ping (鄧禹平) finally visited the verdant peaks and blue streams of Alishan described in the lyrics. Often mistaken as an indigenous folk song, it was actually created in 1949 by Chinese filmmakers while shooting a scene for the movie Happenings in Alishan (阿里山風雲) in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投), recounts director Chang Ying (張英) in the 1999 book, Chang Ying’s Contributions to Taiwanese Cinema and Theater (打鑼三響包得行: 張英對台灣影劇的貢獻). The team was meant to return to China after filming, but