Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) opened a new exhibition on Saturday that showcases works by the nine finalists from this year’s Taipei Art Awards, highlighting the various conflicts they feel about themselves or being in a changing world with ever changing technologies.
During an awards ceremony held on Friday, Chen Zhao-hua (陳肇驊) won the Grand Prize for his work titled At Xiaguirou Mt (在 下圭柔山): NT$550,000 (US$17,110) and an opportunity to hold a solo exhibition at the museum, according to a statement.
Chen’s work recreates a shed used for his artwork, in which two metal giant leaves of a night-scented lily plant are connected to a modified compressor and frosted.
 
                    Photo courtesy of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum via CNA
This shows Chen’s true passion for creating art despite the stark working space, the jury said.
The artist’s “mindset [of his passion for arts] is demonstrated by the details of the recreated shed,” the jury said. “The honesty and sophistication of the work displays an artist’s struggle between his work and reality.”
The museum picked a total of nine finalists after receiving a total of 227 submissions, it added.
In addition to the Grand Prize, two of the nine finalists — Wu Wei-ting (吳瑋庭) and Chen Zi-yin (陳姿尹) — received an Honorable Mention from the jury and a cash prize of NT$120,000 each, the museum said.
Wu’s Daily Noise — Level of Illusion (日常雜訊一一錯覺層次) is comprised of several objects created to look like daily items scattering around the exhibition space, such as a piece of Carrara white marble measuring 3cm by 1.5cm by 1cm, titled This is not an Eraser (這不是一個橡皮擦).
Meanwhile, Chen’s Pixel Extension (像素延伸) shows how artificial intelligence (AI) could change what appears to be real but is not, such as a video explaining how AI technology zooms out from the Earth as little more than a spec of dust in an image of the universe.
Chen also displays a photograph of a street with a hole in the sky in her work titled Removal of the Moon (移除月球), which shows the different moon phases, depending where the viewer stands.
The other six finalists, whose works are shown in the exhibition, include Chuang Pei-xin’s (莊培鑫) The Method of Entry (進入的方法), Peng Si-qi’s (彭思錡) House and Universe — Whish (家屋與天地—微軀), and Lee Li-chung’s (李立中) The Legend of Banshanzai (半山傳奇).
The others are Wu Chia-yun’s (吳家昀) Five, Four, Three, Two (無盡), Peng Wei’s (彭韋) Blank (空白), and Lai Jiun-ting’s (賴俊廷) The Human-like Non-human Series: Cognitive Algorithms, Artificial Organs, and Elector Telepresence (似人非人_認知演算。人造器官。電幻知覺).
The exhibition runs until Feb. 18.

The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of

Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions. China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing. President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading

‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to