‘Vase of an Anti-Aircraft Gun’ is Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi’s first large-scale installation in Taiwan. Juxtaposing an ordinary living room with a weapon of war, the work speaks to issues of displacement, curatorial conflict of interest, and power.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/11/24
By: Leora Joy Jones & John Stephenson

Two anti-aircraft gun barrels penetrate up through floorboards, piercing the small coffee table, and – posing as vases – hold two large bouquets of lilies. The space features a comfortable sofa, and a large television looping news reports from 24-hour Taiwanese news channels. There are bookshelves to peruse, magazines strewn across a coffee table, paintings on the wall, and a calendar with the days marked off. But, it’s not a normal space. The room is built on scaffolding. The flowers are in gun barrels. It’s so easy to forget this – seated on a sofa, with the news on, rain mutely hitting the roof. This is “Vase of an Anti-Aircraft Gun,” Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi’s first large-scale installation in Taiwan.

A must-see work
This is a striking and well curated show. Put together by Huang Shan-shan (黃姍姍) at the Jut Art Museum, “The Flying Land” is an inquiry into contemporary living in globalized urban spaces, and constitutes a powerful examination of ideas of “temporary lodging” and the “migratory” nature of the modern world.

Nishi’s installation is the exhibition’s centerpiece, and his playful style ricochets off every aspect. Once inside, however, the viewer reels from sudden cognitive dissonance. Nishi has created an illusion that reveals both the real and non-real nature of the private spaces we wrap around ourselves. There may be no cannon in our living rooms, but the dangers and dominance of power exists as an ever-present reality. This uneasy feeling of displacement pervades “Vase of Anti-Aircraft Gun.” Any attempt to reconcile the discomfort by sitting on the sofa and leafing through a magazine is shattered by the presence of the ‘vases’. The scene recalls Chekhov’s Gun in its theatrical arrangement – the artillery part of an ex machina plot that is bound to play out regardless of our involvement or consent.    [FULL  STORY]

The Jakarta Post
Date: November 17, 2018

Asian cinema’s top stars gather in Taipei on Saturday for Taiwan’s Golden Horse film awards, dubbed the Chinese-language “Oscars”, with acclaimed director Zhang Yimou’s “Shadow” leading the race.

Oscar-winning Taiwanese-American director Ang Lee, Chinese superstar Gong Li and Hong Kong’s “heavenly king” Andy Lau are among the celebrities due to walk down the red carpet in Taipei ahead of the glitzy ceremony.

Chinese director Zhang’s martial arts epic, inspired by traditional ink-brush painting, leads with 12 nominations including for the coveted best film, best director, best leading actor and actress awards.

Taiwanese comedy “Dear EX” about a widow fighting for her husband’s inheritance against his gay lover, follows closely with eight nods in the best film and best acting categories, plus a best new director nod for Taiwanese duo Mag Hsu and Hsu Chih-yen.    [FULL  STORY]

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/11/17
By: Lee Hsin-Yin

Taipei, Nov. 17 (CNA) Taiwanese actress Hsieh Ying-xuan (謝盈萱) won her first best leading actress award at the 55th Golden Horse Awards in Taipei on Saturday, beating other four Chinese contenders to keep the award at home.

Hsieh was recognized for her compelling performance in the movie “Dear EX,” in which she plays a woman whose deceased husband had bequeathed his assets to his secret gay lover, disinheriting his wife and only son.

The 38-year-old was streaming tears as she accepted her award, saying she was honored to be nominated along with her fellow nominees.

“I will keep learning hard,” said Hsieh, who was better known as a stage actress but started gaining recognition in cinema when she appeared in “Au Revoir Taipei” in 2010.    [FULL  STORY]

San Fransisco Chronicle
Date: November 2, 2018 
By: Joshua Kosman

The world of Western classical music is as vibrant and multifarious in Asia as anywhere else, but too often American audiences get to hear only a small sample of what that region has to offer. To take an obvious example, it means that an organization like the Taiwan Philharmonic is known here almost exclusively by reputation.

This week brings a small corrective to the situation, as the orchestra winds up a rare tour of the West Coast with a concert in Davies Symphony Hall on Monday, Nov. 5.

Music Director Shao-Chia Lü plans to lead a program that includes “Dancing Song” from “Three Aboriginal Songs for Orchestra” by the Taiwanese composer Gordon Chin, as well as works by Barber and Brahms. The young Taiwanese virtuoso Yu-Chien Tseng is the soloist in Barber’s Violin Concerto.

Taiwan Philharmonic: 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 5. $35-$200. Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave., S.F. 415-392-4400. www.cityboxoffice.com    [SOURCE]

Polymer art space’s Petri dish bred artistic creativity, cultivating intriguing works of art

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/11/02
By: Lyla Liu, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Polymer art space will be closed due to the upcoming lease expiration in December. In order to commemorate the five-year establishment, Polymer will hold a performance titled “Stolen Field” this weekend (Nov. 3,4.), reflecting the difficult situation existing within Taiwan’s art industry.

Established in 2013, Polymer has been located in the Beitou district. The venue gathered creative minds from multiple disciplines. Its nature is expressed in galleries, museums, and schools, and served as the “Silicon Valley” of the art world.

Polymer is also like a Petri dish breeding the creativity of artists and cultivating dramatic new forms of art.

“At Polymer’s onset, artists invested almost 2 million in building up the locale while planning, furnishing, and recruiting resident artists. After a while, they finally settled in to create astounding art. Then, people started to have disagreements and disputes,” said the art director, Kuo I-Chen.    [FULL  STORY]

Hurriyet Daily News
Date: October 30 2018 

Turkey first heard about Uğur Rıfat Karlova, a Turkish entertainer living in Taiwan, when he won the “Best Host” award in 2012 at Taiwan’s Golden Bell Awards, which is the Taiwanese equivalent to the Emmy Awards. He was the first foreigner to receive an award in that category.

Uğur Rıfat Karlova, 38, is a Turkish entertainer living in Taiwan. He is well-recognized among the Taiwanese by the name “Ufong.” But Turkey first heard about him when he won the “Best Host” award in 2012 at Taiwan’s Golden Bell Awards, which is the Taiwanese equivalent to the Emmy Awards.

Karlova was the first foreigner to receive an award in that category. He was in the spotlight once again when Tom Cruise signed Karlova’s head after an interview for MTV Taiwan. Since then, Karlova has had many other groundbreaking achievements. He became the first foreigner to receive Taiwanese citizenship for his contributions in arts and culture. However, his recent success has gone unnoticed. Eight months ago, Karlova published a Chinese book in which he gives the reader a tour of Turkey. With Karlova, we talked about his journey to fame, his new book and future plans.

After receiving a university degree in tourism, Karlova went back to Tekirdağ and started working at his father’s oil shop. In the winter of 2001, he began to ask himself, “what can I do to change my life?” He found the answer in learning a new language, but his next question was, which language?    [FULL  STORY]

Check out the Mecanoo-designed National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts.

HypeBeast
Date: October 20, 2018
By: Joanna Fu

The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, designed by Dutch firm Mecanoo Architects, has officially opened in Taiwan, setting the record for the world’s largest performing arts center with five state-of-the-art spaces under a single roof spanning 35 acres (140,000 square meters).

The expansive project, also dubbed “Weiwuying,” took 15 years to build and is Taiwan’s most significant cultural investment in a generation with an estimated cost of $221 million USD, according to the Smithsonian. The structure is set across a 116-acre (470,000-square-meter) subtropical park in the southern port city of Kaoksiung, which was formerly a military training base. The center features a 2,260-seat opera house, 2,000-seat concert hall, 470-seat recital hall and outdoor performance space capable of seating up to 20,000 people.

Take a look at the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts above and share your thoughts in the comments below.

In other design news, New York’s Central Park Tower will be recognized as the tallest residential building in the world.    [FULL  STORY]