Below is a list of the top 10 ArtsEquator articles in 2020, in random order:
An Elder Millennial’s Guide to Classic Singapore TV & Movies by Joel Tan
Published on: 20 Aug 2020
“Purists are undecided on when exactly Singapore TV died, but I think 2007, when Phua Chu Kang wrapped, and 2015, when Tanglin started, might be a good gauge. ”
Pandemic in the Philippines: A cultural sector on its own by Katrina Stuart Santiago
Published on: 17 Aug 2020
“At a time when national leadership has proven to be most violent and heartless, there is little one can expect from cultural institutions.”
20 Arts and Cultural Festivals to Visit in Southeast Asia in 2020 by Denise Dolendo
Published on: 16 Jan 2020
“It’s the year 2020 and the world is rife with new Instagram filters, hashtag 2020vision (yes, we get it) and the perennial “new year, new me” declarations.”
Coronalogues, pandemic spectatorship (and the critic) by Corrie Tan and Nabilah Said
Published on: 5 Jun 2020
“On the one hand, this piece may be read as mere lamentations by a pair of tortured critics.”
Reflections on Art, Angin, Sickness and The Soul of Malaysia by Jo Kukathas
Published on: 30 Apr 2020
“To my mind the fact that this crisis can bring the entire arts sector to a complete standstill with no plan for the future points to a deep-seated systemic problem. The problem is not one of finance, one suspects, but rather a failure of the imagination.”
Is this thing on? Singapore theatre in the midst of a pandemic by Nabilah Said
Published on: 29 Mar 2020
“Four Horse Road by The Theatre Practice was the last live theatre show in Singapore before theatres went dark. It opened on 25 March and closed the next day – putting on just two out of 26 planned shows. Petrina Kow, who performed in the 2018 staging of Four Horse Road, was in the audience for that last show. “It feels like that happened a year ago. At that time we weren’t wearing masks yet,” she recalls.”
COVID-19 and the arts in Southeast Asia by Nabilah Said
Published on: 27 Mar 2020
“We are good at making impossible, unknown things happen, run well and known in a place where people don’t give a shit about visual culture.”
Arts censorship: At the end of the day, this is not new by Kathy Rowland
Published on: 11 Feb 2020
“The facts, as we understand them, points to a tragedy all of Balai’s own making. In choosing to heed the unauthorised voice of a board member, as it is alleged, Balai has sacrificed the rights of its principle stakeholder, the artist.”
Letter from Esplanade: A reflection on the arts, lessons from SARS, and COVID-19 by Yvonne Tham
Published on: 9 Apr 2020
“With Singapore today in ‘circuit-breaker’ mode, Esplanade too is closed, except for some of the eateries still operating takeaway and delivery services, and a skeletal operations team keeping the durian going so that we can, at any point deemed safe, return immediately to being “Open”. For the rest of us working from home, as one colleague lamented, “I miss the smell of our theatre!””
Wretchedness and absurdity: Thoughts on Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite by Teo You Yenn
Published on: 18 Feb 2020
“My first reaction to art I admire is often a sort of professional envy: artists at their best can achieve what social scientists simply cannot and shouldn’t bother to try. There is fluidity and light and air in this film that makes my book on a similar topic feel clunky and heavy and damp.”
About the author(s)
Nabilah Said
Nabilah Said is an award-winning playwright, editor and cultural commentator. She is also an artist who works with text across various artforms and formats. Her plays have been staged in Singapore and London, including ANGKAT, which won Best Original Script at the 2020 Life Theatre Awards. Nabilah is the former editor of ArtsEquator.