Reality — Representation (實.現) presents a series of documentary photographs recently acquired by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Over the past two decades, photography in Taiwan has continued to evolve and the exhibition is meant to reflect how the photographers convey their affection for and interpretation of the country, particularly its environmental features, cultural patterns and struggles in a rapidly changing society. The exhibit is composed of photographs taken over the course of 20 years by eight photographers born in the 1950s and 1960s.
■ Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM, 台北市立美術館), 181, Zhongshan N Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (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. Admission: NT$30
■ Until Jan. 13
Photo courtesy of TFAM
According to Mind Set Art Center (安卓藝術), A Conscious Choice for Temporary Blindness is an artistic experiment that is both abstract and contradictory. It features representational yet dreamy paintings by Romanian artists Ana Maria Micu and Catalin Petrisor, who use their canvases to imagine the state of blindness as a metaphor for lost memories. As the gallery’s press release says, “they individually play with images and various materials to discover the multiple possibilities [to] re-establish a state of parallel reality between illusion and reality.”
■ Mind Set Art Center (安卓藝術), 16-1, Xinsheng S Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市新生南路三段16-1號), tel: (02) 2365-6008. Open Tuesdays to Sunday 2pm to 6pm
■ Until Jan. 13
Photo courtesy of metaphysical art gallery
Tetsu and Otyu is a solo exhibition of photographs by Japanese photographer Tomomi Sakuma that narrates the day-to-day life of his grandparents, their names being the exhibit’s title, following World War II, and are meant to inspire hope to those who lived through last year’s earthquake and tsunami. “I hope the pictures ad story told within the pictures could also help others, who see them, to find joy and happiness,” writes Sakuma in his artist’s introduction.
■ 1839 Little Gallery (1839小藝廊), B1, 120 Yanji St, Taipei City (台北市延吉街120號B1), tel: (02) 2778-8458. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 8pm
■ Until Dec. 30
Hsu Yin-ling’s (許尹齡) new series of 21 paintings, collectively titled Gourmet Drama (料理劇), meditates on the relationship between people and the food they eat, drawing the viewer’s attention to common associations of food and how they symbolize different aspects of contemporary society.
■ 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
■ Until Feb. 7
Dialogs presents the work of 14 emerging and established South Korean artists, including Nam June Paik, who is generally considered an important innovator of video installation. Painting, sculpture, photography and video come together in works that span influences ranging from pop art to abstract to expressionism.
■ Metaphysical Art Gallery (形而上畫廊), 7F, 219, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段219號7樓), tel: (02) 2711-0055. Open Tuesdays to Sundays from 11am to 6:30pm
■ Until Jan. 6
Last week the Economist (“A short history of Taiwan and China, in maps,” July 10) and Al Jazeera both sent around short explainers of the Taiwan-China issue. The Al Jazeera explainer, which discussed the Cold War and the rivalry between the US and the People’s Republic of China (PRC), began in the postwar era with US intervention in the Chinese Civil War and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) retreat to Taiwan. It was fairly standard, and it works because it appeals to the well-understood convention that Taiwan enters history in 1949 when the KMT retreats to it. Very different, and far
To step through the gates of the Lukang Folk Arts Museum (鹿港民俗文物館) is to step back 100 years and experience the opulent side of colonial Taiwan. The beautifully maintained mansion set amid a manicured yard is a prime example of the architecture in vogue among wealthy merchants of the day. To set foot inside the mansion itself is to step even further into the past, into the daily lives of Hokkien settlers under Qing rule in Taiwan. This museum should be on anyone’s must-see list in Lukang (鹿港), whether for its architectural spledor or its cultural value. The building was commissioned
Like many people juggling long hours at work, Chiharu Shimoda sought companionship via a dating app. For two months, he exchanged messages with five or six potential partners, but it wasn’t long before he was seeking out just one — a 24-year-old named Miku. Three months later, they got married. The catch: Miku is an AI bot. And Shimoda knew that from day one. The 52-year-old factory worker is one of over 5,000 users of Loverse, a year-old app that allows interaction only with generative artificial intelligence. Shimoda’s also among a much bigger cohort of people who’ve either given up or
July 15 to July 21 Depending on who you ask, Taiwan Youth (台灣青年) was a magazine that either spoke out against Japanese colonialism, espoused Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ideology or promoted Taiwanese independence. That’s because three publications with contrasting ideologies, all bearing the same Chinese name, were established between 1920 and 1960. Curiously, none of them originated in Taiwan. The best known is probably The Tai Oan Chheng Lian, launched on July 16, 1920 by Taiwanese students in Tokyo as part of the growing non-violent resistance movement against Japanese colonial rule. A crucial part of the effort was to promote Taiwanese