White fungus

WHITE FUNGUS

地址：

408台灣台中市南屯區南屯路二段420號7樓之5

Address:

7F-5, No. 420, Sec. 2, Nantun Rd., Taichung City, Taiwan 408

 

White Fungus to Release 16th Issue

 

Taiwan-based magazine White Fungus is about to release its 16th issue. The new issue features a 50-page interview with Carolee Schneemann, an epic exploration of the world of animal music, plus Kurt Gottschalk reports on a New York performance of Max Richter’s SLEEP.

 

Taipei curator Jeph Lo describes witnessing the emergence of noise music in Taiwan’s post–martial law era, alongside a photo essay on political demonstrations held during the island’s transition out of military rule. There is an article about 2018 Turner Prize–nominee Luke Willis Thompson, plus an interview with Dor Guez about the Christian Palestinian Archive. The issue features new performance art from Taiwan, plus a profile of obscure Wellington street artist Ruffo who appears in Chris Kraus’s classic fantastical memoir I Love Dick.

White Fungus was started in 2004 by brothers Ron Hanson and Mark Hanson in Wellington, New Zealand. The first issue was an impromptu protest against the building of a motorway that would cut through the city’s arts district, destroying heritage buildings and forcing artists from their studios.

 

Copies of the first issue were produced on a photocopier, wrapped in Christmas paper and hurled anonymously through the entrances of businesses throughout the city. The name of the publication comes from a can of “white fungus”, a commercially produced pulped beverage the Hansons discovered in their local supermarket in Taiwan. In 2009 the Hansons relocated back to Taiwan where they have since been active publishing and directing live art events.

 

The 16th issue of White Fungus will be hitting shelves world-wide in mid-January via Boutique Magazines. If you would like any further information about White Fungus, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

 

Ron Hanson

Editor-in-Chief

editor@whitefungus.com

Open art

 

Me, standing proudly beside some of my art: clockwise, l to r, the first page of "Alchemy Hour", four pages of my residential work-in-progress "Natural Desire", a page from "Escape Behaviours" and one from "Orcus" (the full comic of "Orcus" can be read in the latest issue of Funtime Comics Anthology).

I just got back from Taiwan, where I participated in the second half of the NZ Book Council's Graphic Novelist Exchange Residency in association with the Publishers Association of New Zealand (PANZ) and the Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE).

 

"Warkworth" from "Escape Behaviours", my epic graphic poem about marriage, migration and stuttering.

There's so much I want to tell you about - too much for one post - so I'll talk about the graphic novelists' exhibition today, then (because I still haven't finished posting about the first half of the residency, that happened back in October) I'll try to zoom through the whole residency and get up to speed with current events in the next few posts and post more about the book fair after that - I can't believe it's almost March already!

  

 

Muriwai Ihakara

New Zealand was the 2015 Guest of Honour at the Taipei International Book Exhibition, which opened with a blessing given by Muriwai Ihakara.

Ant Sang, Tim Gibson, 61 Chi, Ahn Zhe, Sean Chuang and I were lucky enough to have works selected for exhibition and luckier still to be given such a spacious exhibition arena, right by the busy manga section of the TIBE main hall.

 

Ant Sang, with his awesome art: pages from "Shaolin Burning" and work-in-progress from the residency. 

 

 It was the best feeling in the world to see my work blown up so huge and people taking their time to really look closely at it. 

 

61 Chi's art.

 

Information about the residential exchange and the artists' village, where we stayed for the residential part of our time in Taipei. 

 

More people looking at my work! 

Because I had submitted the most work-in-progress, I was very generously given eight stands to display it and was thrilled to see it all presented so beautifully - and so big!

 

Had I known my photo would be enlarged to this size, well...hindsight, eh? 

All the art looked amazing and it was especially touching to see it displayed with photographs taken during the residential exchange, both from Auckland and Taipei.

  

Tim Gibson's work and photographs from the residency. 

 

Tim Gibson, at the blessing.

 

Photographs from the residential exchange.

 

Sean Chuang's art. 

 

Ahn Zhe's art.

 

People who liked Rae's work also liked Ahn Zhe's work - 'cause it's poetry, innit?

My sincere gratitude to PANZ and the NZ Book Council for selecting me to participate in the Residential Exchange and the TIBE, and to their staff and Dala Publishing's staff in Taipei, who worked tirelessly to make the event a great success. Thank you.



Happy Chinese New Year!

Thank tank

I am delighted to share the official press release and take this opportunity to thank the NZ Book Council for choosing me to participate in the Graphic Novelist and Comic Artists Exchange Residency with Taiwan.

My colleagues are an astoundingly talented group of professionals:

• Tim Gibson has a background in illustrating worlds, characters and monsters for films including Tintin, District 9 and Avatar. His website www.mothcity.com offers a fresh take on the traditional murder mystery and is distributed through digital comics distributor ComiXology. Tim’s work has been widely anthologised and Moth City is considered a ground-breaking approach to storytelling. 
• Ant Sang is an award-winning graphic novelist who has also produced numerous short comics for local anthologies and educational purposes. Shaolin Burning was awarded an Honour Award at the 2012 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards and was selected for the Storylines Notable Books list that same year. His 2004 comic series The Dharma Punks will be reprinted in graphic novel form for the first time in 2014.
• Chuang Yung-shin is one of the most well-known commercial film directors in Taiwan. In 1997 he published Film Maker’s Notes, a comic which recorded his life and works and has been reprinted 18 times. Since then he has gone on to publish further award winning works, including The Window and ‘80s Diary in Taiwan1.
• 61Chi graduated from the Art Department of Taiwan Normal University. Her first book of comics, Room, was published in January 2014. 61Chi belongs to the new generation of Taiwanese comics artists with versatile drawing talents and a broad range of skills across genres, including children’s illustration, American style realistic drawing and Japanese aesthetic style.
• Ahn Zhe was born in Taipei in 1985. While his work encompasses graphic design, illustration and storyboard design, his true passion lies in art as well as image and word creation. His works include The Dream Under the Bed, published by TITAN Publishing Co. Ltd. in 2011, and he has also contributed to collections such as 80s Taipei x 90s Hong Kong.

The aim of the exchange is to:

• foster collaboration between artists
• enable the creation and publication of a cross-cultural graphic novel
• create an opportunity for graphic novels to be discussed and explored within an international context.

Which means I'll be part of a sort of awesome graphic novel think tank - I can't wait!