In the era of globalization when terrorism, deadly viruses and global warming seem to threaten man's existence, uncertainty and disquietude have become creeping motifs in our daily lives. Chi-wen Gallery, a lively young venue devoted to the contemporary art scene in Taiwan, is currently hosting a video exhibition entitled Age of Anxiety which takes its cue from global undercurrents of angst and collective fear and features works by Tsui Kuang-yu (崔廣宇) and Peng Hung-chih (彭弘智).
Peng, who resides in New York, has since 2000 been offering insights into the human condition from a dog's perspective by making video art works starring his pet pooch Yuki.
In the three videos on display at the gallery, Peng's dog inscribes sections of Christian, Buddhist and Taoist religious texts onto a wall by licking it. The videos were made by playing backwards the images of the animal eating dog food spread in the shape of characters on the wall.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CHI-WEN GALLEY
The sacred text is ridiculed through its creation by a dog rapaciously gulping down the food shaped in English, Chinese and Sanskrit characters. At the same time, that sacred knowledge is reproduced by an animal which is deemed inferior to human beings is an ironic statement and refers to the problem of terrorism as religious faith.
“I think the many problems we confront today are the West's fault, especially religious conflicts. As a culturally hybrid artist from the East, I believe the interpretations I make concerning these issues can be very different from those of Western artists, though sometimes I run the risk of offending people for being too direct,” Peng told the Taipei Times.
A good example of Peng's outspokenness can be found in his previous exhibition held in New York in which paragraphs in the Bible referring to violent acts and thoughts are translated into Arabic and unveiled by his dog. “Many people believe the texts are from the Koran,” Peng said while grimacing.
Peng will expand the project to include Judaism, Sikhism and Shintoism. “I like to concentrate my attention on one specific subject for a long period of time,” said Peng, who sees the video work as the beginning of his exploration of the relationship between man and God.
In The Shortcut to the Systematic Life: City Spirits (系統生活捷徑 – 城市精神), Tsui is subject and director of lighthearted videos shot in Taipei and London and which reveal the absurd side of contemporary urban life in a manner similar to a slapstick silent film.
The five videos, each 90 seconds long, show him turning familiar urban landscapes into sports arenas. In one segment, the 32-year-old artist jumps over trash cans, roadside bushes and motorcycles parked on the sidewalk as if he were in a hurdles race, while in another Tsui is spotted climbing down mounds of garbage and piles of abandoned cars. The up-and-coming artist mischievously waves a checkered flag at cars stopped at traffic lights in a humorous nod to racing in another clip.
Hailed locally as an artist who combines performance arts with video installation, Tsui is known for his humorous and imaginative takes on metropolitan life. City Spirits provides an insightful survey of the relationship between urbanites and their surroundings through the artist's aberrant acts filmed in public spaces — “urban crevices,” according to Tsui — and turns reality into surreal fragments of city life.
Exhibition Notes:
What: Age of Anxiety (從幽默到荒謬)
Where: Chi-wen Galley, 3F, 19, Ln 252, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei (台北市敦化南路一段252巷19號3樓). Call (02) 8771-3372
When: Until Sept. 30
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had
RSS