Southerly Journal

Southerly is a platform for art writing and criticism that tracks the currency and intensities of ideas and practice in Taiwan and the Asia Pacific. From short and long-form criticism, essays and reviews to dialogues, commentary and experimental prose, Southerly prospects the shifting landscape of art and exhibitions in the region.

The inaugural issue features writing by CCSCA students explored the varied pathways, connections and entry points in art and exhibition-making in Taiwan and beyond

EDITORIAL

Francis Maravillas - “Editorial: Southerly”

ESSAYS

Cullen Pitney - “Left to Our Own Devices”

Leora Joy - “Decolonising Nature: The 2018 Taipei Biennial and Manifesta 12”

Shormi Ahmed - “Curating Tension”

Daniella Romano - “‘Everyday Life and Landscapes of the Island’: Unsettling the Colonial Gaze”

INTERVIEWS

Leora Joy Jones, Christopher Whitfield “The Secrets of the South: An interview with Nobuo Takamori”

RESPONSES AND REVIEWS

LU Pei-Yi, Leora Joy Jones, Shu-Yu Hsueh, Christopher Whitfield - “Roundtable Review: ‘The Secret South: From Cold War Perspective to Global South in Museum Collection'”

Assistant editors: Leora Joy Jones and Christopher Whitfield
Art direction and design: Joy Jones, Justine Rigal, and Christopher Whitfield

Taipei Poetry Collective's Three Versify Zines

To commemorate public poetry readings in 2017, 2018, and 2022, TPC released three zines with a selection of poets’ original work. Attendees at all three events took home echoes of what we’ve so long been cultivating.

Versify I printed in December 2017, in Taiwan, with 54 pages featuring 17 poets’ original work.

Versify II printed April 2018, in Taiwan, with 52 pages featuring 16 poets’ original work.

Versify III printed in June 2022, in Taiwan, with 72 pages featuring 27 poets’ original work.

TPC is planning another reading and printing of a fourth zine, so stay tuned for that.

V3 | Meet the Poets Reading Original Work, the Artists, Photographers and DJs

Wear Sunscreen: Nostalgic Advice for Your Future Self | Taipei Writers' Retreat | September 2020

In September of 2020, I had the pleasure of hosting a workshop at Taipei Writers’ Retreat in Toucheng. In the workshop “Wear Sunscreen: Nostalgic Advice for Your Future Self” participants examined, generated, and discussed advice as a form of writing to better understand collaboration as method. Participants came away from this workshop with a collection of tools to help work through moments of tension or self-doubt in their writing practice.

Interview with Mali Wu

A few days before the end of the year, I sat down with Mali Wu, a socially engaged artist, who alongside Francesco Manancorda, co-curated the 2018 Taipei Biennial, titled Post Nature: A Museum as an Ecosystem. We spoke curatorial mechanisms, environmentally focused art, and her future plans.

42 participants from 19 countries were invited to participate. Many of these participants were non-traditional artists such as filmmakers, activists, researchers and other environmental groups.

Taipei Biennial 2018

Post-Nature: A Museum as an Ecosystem.

November 2018 - March 2019

Taipei Fine Art Museum

Tuesday to Sunday 9:30-17:30

Saturday 9:30-20:30

Loaded Guns

I wrote about Tatzu Nishi’s first monumental installation in Taipei.

Contemporary Monologue

Modern Romance.

Makings of a Millennial.

Poetry.

Books to write otherwise known as what to discuss with my therapist

The Anxiety of Influence.

The Anxiety of Indecision.

The Anxiety of Infection.

The Anxiety of Integrity.

x as y

Lust as currency,

Love as currency,

Attention as currency, 

Alternate. 

x as y

Sleeping as problem solving. 

Tweeting as problem solving. 

Eating as problem solving. 

Fucking as problem solving. 

x ≠ y

Walking subverts structure.

Hyperlinks subvert structure. 

Dancing subverts structure. 

#taipeivignette

The Taipei sky is the color of dry cement.

Practice

Write like how you take photographs. 

#taipeivignette

Just cycled past a young woman with a big bloody gash on her knee and long thick hair hiding chest-heaving sobs. #summerinthecity 

#taipeivignette

A fat man in baby blue swoops past on an electric bicycle in Hello Kitty pink.

Taipei Poetry Collective is in the News

Sandee Woodside wrote on the only Poetry Collective in Taipei. That's us! 

Go to The NewsLens to read about Taipei Poetry Collective and the importance of poetry. 

Photo by Temporary Truth. 

#taipeivignette

Air so thick with imminent rain you could cut it, like slicing those slabs of brown sugar steamed sponge cake, wrapped in wax paper, sold from small blue vans parked on the side of the road. 

#problems with the shape of things

The cinematic canon is shaped like a dick.

The literary canon is shaped like a dick.

The art canon is shaped like a dick.

I wish I was a little more gay.

Practice

Love makes humble fools of us all. 

Practice

Riddled with ego like a cancer.