A photography exhibition featuring 99 abstract works by 25 Taiwanese photographers has opened at the National Center of Photography and Images in Taipei.
“The Eye of Abstraction” exhibition aims to establish a new framework for the genre, which has been dominated in Taiwan by photojournalism and documentary photography, exhibition curator Chang Kuan-ho (章光和) said at the its opening on Wednesday.
The exhibition is shown in four sections: “Figurative and Non-Figurative,” “Sense and Sensibility,” “Gestalt” and “Material Mediums.”
Photo: CNA
The first features works by photographers presenting “unexpected beauty” in everyday life captured at unique angles, Chang said.
The second juxtaposes works by renowned Taiwanese abstract painters and photographers, and asks viewers to compare the two art forms, Chang said.
The third presents photography that explores Gestalt psychology, proposed by psychologist Max Wertheimer in 1912.
The theory holds that when people see images they do not understand, they spontaneously appeal to the laws of symmetry, closure, continuity, proximity, similarity and figure-ground organization, he said.
Chang’s “Botany 0.5” on display at the exhibition is one such example.
The images were created by scanning sections of plants and compiling them in computer software to create horizontal and vertical images in a kaleidoscopic effect, Chang said.
The fourth section focuses on materials and mediums used in photography, and explores their intrinsic beauty, he said.
National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts Director Liao Jen-I (廖仁義) said the museum established the center in April 2021.
However, the vision of Taiwanese photographers more than a decade ago to establish a local museum of photography and images has not been realized, Liao said.
The boundless creativity demonstrated by Taiwanese photographers shows that they deserve a museum dedicated to photography, he said, calling on Deputy Minister of Culture Sue Wang (王時思) to lobby for funding from the Ministry of Culture to make such a museum a reality.
The large output of Taiwanese photographers necessitate the establishment of a venue larger than the center, Wang said.
The creation of a museum of photography and images is a high priority for Minister of Culture Shih Che (史哲) and herself, she said, adding that she hopes the goal can be achieved quickly.
The exhibition is free and runs until July 30.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman