TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“Stages“)
© Shen Chao-Liang, 2006-2009

“The stage is a concrete physical place which asks to be filled, and to be given its own concrete language to speak.” – Antonin Artaud, The Theater And Its Double

Taiwanese photographer Shen Chao-Liang documented elaborate stages often found in his native country. These stages are bewildering and startling to behold, perhaps more bewildering than the entertainment acts played out on them.

Other works can be found on his portfolio. For more images for the series above, visit Aki Gallery.

TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“Circumgyration“)
© Chen Chin-pao, 2004

Chen Chin-Pao taught in an elementary school for a decade (while completing a BFA from SVA, New York) and his series on Circumgyration caught my eye. On first glance, you would think that these were documentary shots of daily school life in a Taiwanese school. Upon closer inspection (or rather, after reading the write up), you would come to realize that these images were staged. Nothing dramatic; just little snapshots of daily life taken out of context.

For more, visit his website. His Heaven on Earth series is also worth a look. Betel Nut Girls remind me of a time when I visited Taiwan as a young soldier. Those were funny days.

TOP TO BOTTOM, from (“Taiwan Workers“)
© Garret M Clarke

Focusing on manual laborers in Southern Taiwan, American-born photographer Garret Clarke has produced a body of work that looks at fishermen, ice factory workers, meat workers and farmers. From the salt of the earth cometh our daily sustenance. A rare look behind the rough and bruised hands of the men and women who provide us with the essentials that we take for granted.

More work up at his portfolio.

Got this in my mail today for a visual art exhibition in New York. Unfortunately, I’m halfway across the globe!

ChinaSquare Gallery New York is pleased to present Germinators, a group featuring Cao Jingping, Chen Wei, Li Jikai, Liao Yibai, Ma’chunfu, Qu Jiehen, Unmask, Wang Haiyang, Wang Tiantian, Wang Yaqiang, and Zhang Peng.

Germinators includes the work of 11 up-and-coming artists from China and Taiwan, whose work deeply addresses and begins to strip bare the reality of the radical change and societal restructuring that is playing out across the domestic landscape today. Much like a seed nestled deep within the earth that gradually sends out shoots struggling to break free in pursuit of the sun, the work presented in Germinators is equally engaged in the germination of a wholly new social landscape that grows in leaps and bounds as it both analyzes that growth and becomes part of it in equal measure.

Visit the gallery’s website for more information.

From the series, Urban Scale

From the series, Water Management

From the series, Men
[all images © Rona Chang]

Do take look at her other work on her website

The F Blog posted some images of Chinese and Vietnamese fishermen in Taiwan by photojournalist Liang-I Chang. Check it out.

© Yao Jui Chung – Heaven

© Yao Jui Chung – Liberation of Taiwan

© Yao Jui Chung – Roaming Around the Ruins

More stuff on his exhibitions here and here.