The streak of rainy weather is continuing in Taipei, so I figured it was a good time to drop in on a couple of museums. MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art, is right around the corner from where I live, so I headed there first.

I really like MOCA. The exhibits are always interesting and the art is spread out over two floors in a series of interesting spaces. They utilize open spaces, the hallways, individual small rooms, some medium-size rooms, a couple of large spaces on the second floor, and even the stairwells. Every time you turn a corner, you find something new and exciting.

The entrance fee of NT$50 (children under six – free) is extremely reasonable. It’s really the bargain of the century, and for your NT$50 you get a one-of-a-kind ticket, which is specially designed to match the nature of the exhibit on display. Knapsacks are not allowed inside (a wise policy considering the sometimes tight and dark spaces you have to navigate), but there are free lockers available in the lobby. Photography, however, is allowed and you are free to bring in your cameras and snap away to your heart’s content. There are volunteers strategically placed around MOCA to keep things under control and answer any questions you may have. There are also informative placards about the art and the artists, and these are in Chinese and English. If that weren’t enough, there is a small gift shop, the Artco de Café coffee shop, and usually a second smaller exhibit that is free and open to everyone. This smaller exhibit is always just as interesting as the main exhibit, and it is housed in a space to the right as you enter the museum. You can also go there after you’ve seen the main exhibit. Just turn right at the bottom of the stairs as you exit. A volunteer is stationed there with a hand stamp. Get your hand stamped if you wish to go through the main exhibit a second time.

The main exhibit currently at MOCA is called Wonderland: New Contemporary Art from Australia. It opened on February 11 and will run until April 15. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday (closed on Mondays) from 10 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. There is also a series of lectures and artist talks being given in connection with the art on display. Check the MOCA Taipei website for details, or pick up one of the detailed brochures available at the museum.

It would be very difficult to summarize the Wonderland: New Contemporary Art from Australia exhibit. I believe 23 different artists are taking part and there is a wide range of art on display. There are a lot of very interesting video pieces. Quite a number are also interactive and entrance to these rooms is controlled. If you go at a busy time, you might have to wait in a short line to go inside. It doesn’t matter, though. There is a lot to take in. My favorite piece was right at the very beginning. It consisted of three panels on the floor showing three different satellite images of the landscape of Australia slowly scrolling past. It’s quite mesmerizing. Look carefully to spot the surprise.

Another piece I enjoyed very much was a high-def video of a man performing tai-chi filling nearly an entire wall. The image was manipulated digitally so that this man started to melt and transform until there were many versions of him all across the screen merging into each other. It’s very fluid and beautiful.

In the stairwell was another video piece, this one of dozens of people floating and dancing through space. I stayed there for a long time (sitting comfortably on a cushioned bench) and the sequence of action kept changing. There was always something new to take in. Check out the hundred or so futuristic crickets in the hallway of the second floor. They looked like mutated cell phones, and rather than make chirping sounds, they’ve evolved to display short bursts of texts on LCD screens on their backs. If that’s not a comment on the direction of modern society, I don’t know what is.

After MOCA, I hopped on the MRT and went up to Yuanshan Station to visit the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. It is located about a ten-minute walk from the MRT station. You exit by Exit 1 and then walk through the Expo grounds to Zhongshan Road. The museum is on the other side of Zhongshan Road just a little bit north. It’s a large white building with protruding cube shapes. Pretty hard to miss. There are signs at the MRT station. There is also a tourism office in the MRT station with lots of maps and brochures. The volunteers there speak very good English, and if you don’t know where to go, they’d love to help you out. (The elegant Confucius Temple and the beautiful Baoan Temple are also in this neighborhood, and these would make a great combination with the museum for an afternoon or day trip.)

The Taipei Fine Arts Museum is also one of my favorite places in Taipei. It has a very open and airy entrance lobby. It’s a giant space extending five or six stories to the roof with walls of nearly solid glass on all sides. As you go up the stairs and escalators to the various exhibits, you are constantly presented with beautiful views of this space from the balconies above. Careful of the railings, though. They are wide and slanted downwards. Put a book, cell phone, or anything else on this, and it will likely slide off and crack someone on the head down below!

There is always a lot going on at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Luckily, the entrance fee is only NT$30, so you don’t have to rush and see it all. Just take in what you want, and for NT$30, you can return on another day and see the rest. Every exhibit has an informative and sometimes very extensive brochure or booklet, and you can pick these up at the various entrances. They will be in both English and Chinese. And don’t forget about the basement level. There is a great coffee shop down there with lots of seating both inside and outside in an enclosed garden. I think their cappuccinos are awesome and I always treat myself to one of their heated brownies or a bowl of gelato. Also in the basement are a bookstore and a free art space. I often find the exhibits in the basement space as interesting, or even more interesting, than the main exhibits on the other floors. This was very much the case this time.

The current exhibit in the basement is from the Taipei Arts Awards for 2011. It opened on December 24 and runs until March 4, so there isn’t much time left. I really liked the work by grand prize winner Han-chih Liu. It consisted of a set of whimsical and almost old-fashioned machines. They looked like something from the eighteenth century with their leather straps, mechanical connections, and wooden frames. However, the purpose of each device was pure twenty-first century. For example, there is a small wooden window frame attached to shoulder straps. You put this on, and then you can enjoy a leisurely view from the window anytime. Seeing this put a big smile on my face. Everyone knows how great it is to gaze out the window onto a peaceful scene. With this device you can create that feeling anytime. The window can be slid back and forth, so you can open and close it and enjoy the breeze. People can come up to the window and talk to you through it. It’s very imaginative and funny. Another of his devices is a mechanical vest meant to be worn by someone who is constantly picked on by bullies. This vest has a mechanical arm that, when the bully turns a handle, automatically grabs the person’s collar and pulls it up. This saves the bully the effort of having to grab the collar to yell at the person. You really have to think about this thing when you see it to figure out what it is for. A very fun device was another that automatically rifles the pages of a book to create a cooling breeze. Worn-out students can lay their heads on the desk and enjoy the breeze after a long study session.

I also enjoyed the incredible cakes made by honorable mention artist Yu-ting Lin. They’re made in the shape of typical Taipei buildings – including a 7-11. There is even a re-creation of Yu-ting Lin’s workspace showing all the tools she uses to make her cakes. And I was completely mesmerized by the Twinkle Series by Chi-yu Liao. It consisted of a group of high-def digital projections of various surreal dining scenes. A young woman is in each scene in a strange dining setting. Each woman looked hyper-real – more like a mannequin than a human, but a mannequin that looked like it would suddenly jump at you and say “boo”. The various projections would change and move showing the entire scene and then details of each one. It was very disturbing in a way that I can’t quite put my finger on – more David Lynch than Steven Spielberg if you know what I mean. Each scene came with a soundtrack that played in sequence. There were also headphones there and viewers could put these on to hear the sounds.

There were many more pieces on display here. It looked like there had been far more and some had already been removed. That’s too bad because looking at the brochure I took away, there were a lot of amazing pieces.

The main floors at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum currently contain at least three large exhibits. I kind of last track of them as I moved around. On the main floor is an exhibit called Contemporary Appropriations of the Past. It contains the work of 23 contemporary Taiwanese artists in all kinds of mediums. It’s well worth checking out. I was particularly drawn to a series of antique wooden film projector boxes.

On the second floor was an extensive collection of paintings, sketches, mosaics, traditional arts, and even ad designs by well known Taiwanese artist Shui-Long Yen. There was a lot to see – too much, really – so I focused on the simple paintings of places that I knew and recognized in Taiwan, such as his paintings from Orchid Island. There was also a very detailed chronology of his life, which I found quite interesting. I just checked the Guide Book for this exhibit, and I see that this exhibit ends on February 26 (today). I got in just under the wire.

Another exhibit, this one running until May 13, is called “Journey through Jiangnan – A pivotal moment in Chen Cheng-po’s artistic quest.” Chen Cheng-po (1895-1947) was a Taiwanese painter who travelled all over Taiwan, Japan, and China in his lifetime. He painted landscapes and portraits, and his art reflects the tumultuous time that he lived through.

And there you have it. I definitely recommend Wonderland at MOCA. There are a lot of fun pieces there that will appeal to anyone whether they are interested in “art” or not. Unfortunately, Shui-long Yen’s exhibit at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum will be over before anyone reads this, but there will surely be something new and just as interesting there. And the Taipei Artist Awards 2011 in the basement level is well worth checking out. Get out of the rain, have some gelato, and check out some art.

 

Tags: MOCA, MRT, museum, NT, Taipei Fine Arts Museum