The News Lens
Date: 2017/12/11
By: Morley James Weston
Courtesy of Chien-chi Chang (張乾琦) via Chi-wen Gallery
This collection of mostly Taiwanese artists touches on subjects from food waste to psychedelics.
“Parklife,” the housewarming exhibition at the newly-relocated Chi-wen Art Gallery, is a diverse yet cozy collection of contemporary art with an emphasis on video and photography.
The exhibition is named for the relocation of the gallery from downtown Taipei to the a sleepy neighborhood in the suburb of Tianmu nestled between three city parks. As the effusive gallery founder Chi-Wen Huang (黃其玟) told The News Lens, “You have to step back and get away from the city if you want to really see it.”
The centerpiece of the exhibition is Chien-chi Chang’s (張乾琦) two related pieces: “The War that Never Was” and “You and the Atomic Bomb.”
The former is a video installation focusing on the artist’s mother’s life in the Taiwanese countryside contrasted with the shifting, violent geopolitics of the outside world. The artist’s mother describes the hardships of life in the countryside and her decades of washing clothes as armies goose-step around town squares and G.I.s slog through swamps. Taiwanese kids in hoodies stare at their smartphones as the Middle East explodes and walls fall. The piece is compelling for it’s focus on the mundanity of life in rural Taiwan — we all get caught up in political drama and fail to see the much more relevant universe full of people scrubbing socks and frying food. [FULL STORY]
