Reality Sandwich: Keelung Harbor
Ho Bin Kim's three-channel video works from Keelung Harbor, a Korean barber who moved to Taiwan in 1971, and a worn hotel key tag. It opens in Hsinchu on September 15.
By Look Three Small editors · Keelung, encountered in Hsinchu
Episode 13, Reality Sandwich: Keelung Harbor — key visual
Ho Bin Kim · 2026 · Exhibition key visual
Exhibition visual courtesy of Ho Bin Kim and Accton Arts Foundation. Editorial use.
Editorial useView source ↗
The work is about Keelung Harbor, but it shows in former railway warehouses beside Hsinchu Station—a ten-minute walk, free to enter.
The current exhibition visual for Ho Bin Kim's new three-channel video places three frames side by side. Keelung Harbor stretches across the first. In the second, a barber cuts a customer's hair inside his shop. The third shows an Aloha Hotel key tag, its plastic fob worn around the edges.
Ep.13 Reality Sandwich: Keelung Harbor begins with a newspaper account published nearly a century ago. Kim works from that record and other historical archives, then brings them together with present-day images of the harbor, Heping Island and the Aloha Hotel.
The organizer's account also follows a barber who moved from Korea to Taiwan in 1971. In the current image, he stands behind the chair with comb and scissors in hand, surrounded by the mirrors, shelves and equipment of the shop.
The third frame shows a smaller object: a worn plastic key tag from the Aloha Hotel. Kim's current image gives it the same space as the harbor and the barber.
This is the thirteenth episode of Kim's continuing Reality Sandwich series. Each part develops through encounters in a particular city.
The exhibition is at Hsinchu Railway Art Village, in former railway warehouses beside Hsinchu Station. It opens September 15 and runs through October 18.
Get there
Public transport
From Hsinchu Station, follow the underground passage toward the bus station and Exit 5, then continue along Lane 1, Dongnan Street; the walk takes about ten minutes. The art village has accessible facilities and an accessible toilet.
Sources
- Accton Arts Foundation — current exhibition and visual ↗ — Exhibition account, the barber's 1971 move, and the exhibition visual
- NCAF programme record: Reality Sandwich: Keelung Harbor ↗ — Organizer facts, work description, dates, venue, hours, and admission
- Ho Bin Kim — artist site ↗ — Artist-owned practice context and the Reality Sandwich series
- Hsinchu City — Railway Art Village ↗ — Venue address, hours, station route, and accessible facilities