A vista of rolling hills rise gently to form a range of snow-capped mountains; every ridge, cliff and rock face contoured by stark light and deep shadows. This scenery is not from Taiwan’s Central Mountain range: It is the work of Japanese artist Atsushi Mizutani, part of the “Glory of Mighty Mountains: Ridges Between Awe and Respect” (嶾嶙的岳光：在敬與畏的稜線間) exhibition at the Tainan Art Museum.
The exhibition spanning four galleries features several artists exploring three subthemes: “The Realm of Spiritual Motions between Brightness and Darkness,” “Following the Clear and Bright Light,” and “Co-Creation With Mountains.”
Mizutani’s intricately carved and painted wooden blocks, titled Phantom Landscape, dominate the first gallery, which is fittingly darkened in line with the first subtheme, with gentle spotlights causing visitors to gravitate to the pieces exploring the spiritual dimension of mountains.
.jpg)
Photo: Doruk Sargin
Wu Chi-cheng’s (吳其錚) Mountains provides a counterpoint to Mizutani’s clean, sterile lines, with two large clay pieces offering a messier, more abstract look into the spirituality of the majestic formations. It is also no coincidence that Wu’s earthen, almost moving pieces are bound tight with metal wires, hinting at a theme that is openly explored in the next gallery.
In Tsai Pou-ching’s (蔡咅璟) Song of the Russet Sparrow, which anchors Gallery B, birdsong emanates from numerous clay pots hanging from two large wooden scaffolds. An audiovisual display shows humans engaged in their noisy endeavors — machinery working at a road construction site and a factory production line spitting out blocks of cement — which at times drown out the “birds.” The piece helps drive home the message signaled in Wu’s Mountains: Despite their might and majesty, mountains — and their ecosystems — are under siege. Tsai’s message becomes more jarring as the display shows a group of children running and shouting at a school in a mountain area: that human activity does not need to be destructive in order to be disruptive to the natural order of things.
The next subtheme, “Following the Clear and Bright Light,” looks into mountain forests, which form a boundary between civilization and wilderness, and which humans have tried to tame by building trails. Kao Jun-honn’s (高俊宏) Turtle-Leopard Trail, an ambitious project that involves hiking along trails that pass through historic sites, brings together observation, reading and filmmaking.
.jpg)
Photo: Doruk Sargin
As the exhibition moves on to its last subtheme, its focus also shifts from the spiritual dimension of mountains to humans’ awe and respect for the formations. “Symbiosis - Resonance,” an installation by Corelia Tam (譚若蘭) and Matthew Tsang Man Fu (曾敏富), attempts to capture the majesty of mountains in a more literal way than Mizutani’s Phantom Landscape, as it creates small-scale vistas that greet visitors with rock faces and snow-capped peaks.
The tone of the exhibition moves further from the abstract to the concrete with a traditional Chinese painting of mountainscape by Wang Sing-dao (王興道), a collection of sketches by Yuyu Yang (楊英風) and a colorful painting of Yushan by Ishikawa Kinichiro, titled Niitakayama in Early Winter.
A collection of four large color photographs of mountain vistas by Mai Jue-ming (麥覺明) near the exit come somewhat as a surprise and signal to the visitors that their journey from the spiritual to secular has come to an end, and tells them that this is as far as they will experience such grandeur without actually climbing the mountains: A pair of climbers’ boots and a pickaxe right by the exit serve as reminders of the rigors of such an expedition, and perhaps the frailty of humans in the face of such majesty.
.jpg)
Photo: Doruk Sargin
.jpg)
Photo: Doruk Sargin
Photo: Doruk Sargin
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