Articles

In the space of only a few years, Taipei Popcorn, the creation of New Zealander Nick van Halderen, has emerged as one of Taiwan’s most iconic drag queens. Whether performing at underground clubs, doing photo shoots for Vogue, or starring in art films, Popcorn has become an omnipresent and pivotal figure in the island’s vibrant queer culture. Yet surprisingly, prior to relocating to Taiwan, Van Halderen had never ventured into the world of drag. White Fungus editor Ron Hanson spoke with Popcorn about their unusual journey and gained a window into their personal transformation and Taiwan’s surging queer scene.

Avant-garde jazz group The Art Ensemble of Chicago has been breaking boundaries for more than five decades. Kurt Gottschalk takes a deep dive into the group's history and its continuing evolution in the present. "A revolutionary who’s unwilling to change won’t likely be revolutionary for long," Gottschalk writes. Read an extended excerpt from the author's feature which runs over 30 pages in the new 17th issue of White Fungus.

Social Dissonance is a handbook published by the artist, performer and theorist Mattin which contextualizes his composition "Social Dissonance'', performed at documenta 14 in 2017. The score dispenses with conventional musical instruments and instead instructs the performer to make the audience their instrument. Music cataloger Colin Morgan reviews Social Dissonance and considers how he would catalogue Mattin's disruptive medium.

In this series of wide-angle polaroids, Yao Jui-Chung photographs Madou Temple's animatronic religious display and other similar depictions of hell from throughout Taiwan and Singapore.

Betty Apple is a musician and performance artist based in Taipei. Apple engages in what she terms "live art", intensely physical performances that deconstruct tightly composed constructions of corporeal and aural space. Advancing concepts of the feminine, Apple reworks the leftover rickety architecture of Taiwan's former military state while exploring new postcolonial subjectivities in its present reality, democracy saturated in hypercapitalism. Kyra Kordoski wrote about Apple's work for White Fungus.

Wang Fujui is one of the pioneers of Taiwanese noise music and sound art. Wang emerged in the 1990s during the explosion of Taiwanese experimental music following the lifting of martial law. In 1993, he founded NOISE, Taiwan's first zine and record label dedicated to experimental music. Wang's own work ranges from ecstatic extreme noise to sublime sound and light installations. Alistair Noble wrote about Wang's unique body of work for White Fungus.