Image Map: Chang Tsai Retrospective Photography Exhibition (意象地圖－張才攝影紀念展) offers a solid overview of the artist’s documentary photography through 200 black-and-white photographs snapped from the 1940s up to the 1980s. Under eight separate themes — including Portraits of the Aborigines (原住民容顏), Sacrificial Pig Festival, Sansia (三峽豬公), Festival of Lord Dazhong, Sinjhuang (新莊大眾爺神明遶境) and Behind the Scenes of Taiwanese Opera (歌仔戲的後台人生) — Chang’s photographs document different aspects of Taiwan’s unique culture with a humanistic and sympathetic eye.
The exhibition includes Chang’s Leica camera, a tea leaf can in which he stored his film, photos from his life, a collection of original prints and his prized phonograph and vinyl records. Taken together, the exhibit offers an in-depth view of this pioneer of Taiwanese documentary photography.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM), 181, Zhong-shan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市中山北路三段181號). Open daily from 9:30am to 5:30pm, closes at 8:30pm on Saturdays. Tel: (02) 2595-7656. Admission: NT$30
■ Until June 6
An exhibit by Taiwanese painter Tsong Pu
(莊普) is currently on display at Main Trend Gallery. Tsong’s colorful geometric abstract paintings are meticulously composed of 1cm-by-1cm squares interspersed with swaths of paint that suggest rupture within an orderly world.
■ Main Trend Gallery (大趨勢畫廊), 209-1, Chengde Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市承德路三段209-1號). Open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 11am to 7pm. Tel: (02) 2587-3412
■ Until April 24
Japanese artist Takafumi Hara collects the memories of ordinary people and distills them into paintings in Signs of Memory. After interviewing his subjects, Hara collates certain words and phrases that stand out in his mind and employs them as the starting point for his paintings, a whimsical cross between manga and surrealism. He then installs the paintings in the windows of the houses he has visited (here in the windows of MOCA). In this way, he develops a narrative of the individuals living in a region and a collective memory of the region itself.
■ Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei (MOCA, Taipei), 39 Changan W Rd, Taipei City (台北市長安西路39號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10am to 6pm. Tel: (02) 2552-3720. Admission: NT$50
■ Until May 5
Billed as a “dialogue between sound and painting,” Whispering in Chiang Mai Forest (清邁聲林) brings Taiwanese sound artist Wang Fu-jui (王福瑞) together with Thai painter Natthawut Singthong in a joint exhibition that attempts to capture the aural and visual beauty of northern Thailand.
■ Sakshi Gallery (夏可喜當代藝術), 33 Yitong Street, Taipei City (台北市伊通街33號).
Open Tuesdays to Saturdays from 1:30pm to 9:30pm, Sundays from 1:30pm to 7:30pm.
Tel: (02) 2516-5386
■ Until April 24
Realm of Infinity (無垠鬱域) is a new series of oil paintings by Taiwanese artist Tung Hsin-ru (董心如). Tung’s paintings examine the heterogeneous co-existence of disparate natural and artificial forms through expressionist works rendered in earthy tones and infused with calligraphic and ink painting brush strokes that hark back to her training in traditional Chinese painting.
■ La Chambre Art Gallery (小室藝廊), 31, Ln 52, Siwei Rd, Taipei City (台北市四維路52巷31號). Open Tuesdays to Sundays from noon to 9pm. Tel: (02) 2700-3689
■ Until April 9
Call for Submissions
The Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (KDMOFA — 關渡美術館) is accepting applications from artists working in any media to exhibit their works in the forthcoming Power Show, to be held on the museum’s first-floor gallery space. Works using innovative materials and demonstrating original ideas will take precedence during the selection process. Eligibility is open to all artists except students working on graduation exhibits. The finalist will be chosen by the end of June.
■ Contact Ho Ming-kuei (何明桂) at (02) 2896-1000 X2412 for further details or download application information from the KDMOFA Web site at kdmofa.tnua.edu.tw
■ Application deadline is May 15
Dec. 16 to Dec. 22 Growing up in the 1930s, Huang Lin Yu-feng (黃林玉鳳) often used the “fragrance machine” at Ximen Market (西門市場) so that she could go shopping while smelling nice. The contraption, about the size of a photo booth, sprayed perfume for a coin or two and was one of the trendy bazaar’s cutting-edge features. Known today as the Red House (西門紅樓), the market also boasted the coldest fridges, and offered delivery service late into the night during peak summer hours. The most fashionable goods from Japan, Europe and the US were found here, and it buzzed with activity
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo, speaking at the Reagan Defense Forum last week, said the US is confident it can defeat the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the Pacific, though its advantage is shrinking. Paparo warned that the PRC might launch a “war of necessity” even if it thinks it could not win, a wise observation. As I write, the PRC is carrying out naval and air exercises off its coast that are aimed at Taiwan and other nations threatened by PRC expansionism. A local defense official said that China’s military activity on Monday formed two “walls” east
The latest military exercises conducted by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) last week did not follow the standard Chinese Communist Party (CCP) formula. The US and Taiwan also had different explanations for the war games. Previously the CCP would plan out their large-scale military exercises and wait for an opportunity to dupe the gullible into pinning the blame on someone else for “provoking” Beijing, the most famous being former house speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022. Those military exercises could not possibly have been organized in the short lead time that it was known she was coming.
The world has been getting hotter for decades but a sudden and extraordinary surge in heat has sent the climate deeper into uncharted territory — and scientists are still trying to figure out why. Over the past two years, temperature records have been repeatedly shattered by a streak so persistent and puzzling it has tested the best-available scientific predictions about how the climate functions. Scientists are unanimous that burning fossil fuels has largely driven long-term global warming, and that natural climate variability can also influence temperatures one year to the next. But they are still debating what might have contributed to this
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