I am always wary of people trying to make overlarge statements, and this is what Malaysian-Chinese artist H.H. Lim
One of the first warning signs that Lim's trying to say too much comes in an essay that explains the installation for those who don't "get it," which I'd assume is just about everybody. It says that through this show, Lim intends to "present his views on the world change for the latest year," which included a number of "drastic events, such as New York's 911 tragedy, [the] Israeli war, [the] EU's impact on economics, and natural disasters brought by global climate changes."
A couple of logical nonsequiturs follow, like that since these are problems that "we can only `see' but cannot `speak,'" sign language will be used to specially "interpret" these events (this is a fallacy because sign language expresses thoughts just as any other language does).
To make a quick note of what Lim has done for the exhibition: he has painted the gallery's walls burgundy and on top of that ground has traced textbook style illustrations of generic figures performing sign language in thin, white outlines. There are also several plaques, some picture-sized and hanging on the wall and two two-meters tall and leaning against it. The plaques are embossed with words -- some English and some Italian -- that are printed in reverse so that they could be viewed properly with a mirror.
In all of this language play, Lim seems to be batting at concepts -- much like a blindfolded person bats at a pinata -- from that tirelessly trendy body of thought, post-structural French literary criticism. Specifically, he's bobbling with a paradox of language that goes: the ultimate goal of language is to communicate, but unfortunately, language is an ultimately imperfect tool for communication. So -- and this is what I think he's trying to say -- we have seen a year of extraordinary and calamitous change, but the events themselves were ineffable, and no language we have can adequately express what it means to have seen or experienced them.
But to express that, what he does is put a line drawing of a tank on a wall to represent all the tragedy in all of last year's wars. It is nothing less than incredibly and grossly inadequate. So is juxtaposing against the tank a plaque bearing the word "vedere" (Italian for "to see") and a diagram of how to make the equivalent sign in sign language, all of which is supposed to tell you that seeing these events is the only way of truly understanding them. Basically, it looks like Lim has some big ideas, but he doesn't know how to get them across. So in the end Speechless doesn't say much.
IT Park is located at 2F, 41 Yitung St., Taipei. The exhibit runs through Sept. 28.
On Jan. 17, Beijing announced that it would allow residents of Shanghai and Fujian Province to visit Taiwan. The two sides are still working out the details. President William Lai (賴清德) has been promoting cross-strait tourism, perhaps to soften the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) attitudes, perhaps as a sop to international and local opinion leaders. Likely the latter, since many observers understand that the twin drivers of cross-strait tourism — the belief that Chinese tourists will bring money into Taiwan, and the belief that tourism will create better relations — are both false. CHINESE TOURISM PIPE DREAM Back in July
Could Taiwan’s democracy be at risk? There is a lot of apocalyptic commentary right now suggesting that this is the case, but it is always a conspiracy by the other guys — our side is firmly on the side of protecting democracy and always has been, unlike them! The situation is nowhere near that bleak — yet. The concern is that the power struggle between the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and their now effectively pan-blue allies the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) intensifies to the point where democratic functions start to break down. Both
Taiwan doesn’t have a lot of railways, but its network has plenty of history. The government-owned entity that last year became the Taiwan Railway Corp (TRC) has been operating trains since 1891. During the 1895-1945 period of Japanese rule, the colonial government made huge investments in rail infrastructure. The northern port city of Keelung was connected to Kaohsiung in the south. New lines appeared in Pingtung, Yilan and the Hualien-Taitung region. Railway enthusiasts exploring Taiwan will find plenty to amuse themselves. Taipei will soon gain its second rail-themed museum. Elsewhere there’s a number of endearing branch lines and rolling-stock collections, some
This was not supposed to be an election year. The local media is billing it as the “2025 great recall era” (2025大罷免時代) or the “2025 great recall wave” (2025大罷免潮), with many now just shortening it to “great recall.” As of this writing the number of campaigns that have submitted the requisite one percent of eligible voters signatures in legislative districts is 51 — 35 targeting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus lawmakers and 16 targeting Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The pan-green side has more as they started earlier. Many recall campaigns are billing themselves as “Winter Bluebirds” after the “Bluebird Action”
RSS