Dancer-choreographer Raka Maitra, 46, and dramaturg T. Sasitharan, 59, have been constant collaborators. He is the director of the Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI), while she is the founder of 10-year-old dance company Chowk, known for its contemporary expressions of the traditional Indian dance form of Odissi. When asked, the two recall a disagreement with some mirth, like […]
As a communist country, Vietnam isn’t always the easiest place to find publicly displayed art, especially modern or controversial work. However, the country seems to be changing – and Ho Chi Minh City is leading the way. Here are some of the best places to see public art in the city. Tags: Spaces The Culture Trip
Public Art in Ho Chi Minh City Read More »
Curator Helly Minarti opens her exhibition “Menatap Sang Liyan (Looking at the Other)” at Salihara in Jakarta. The exhibition’s title, “Menatap Sang Liyan”, was selected to represent how Western people looked at the four Javanese dancers, whom they called “the other” (liyan). The exhibition also displays the complexity of orientalism in the art of dance by showing various
‘Menatap Sang Liyan’: Orientalism in the history of dance Read More »
Cloud Gate 2 – A Triple Bill, 7-8 Feb, 8pm Cloud Gate 2, the sister company of internationally acclaimed Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan brings to Singapore’s Esplanade Theatre three dance works by groundbreaking Taiwanese choreographers Cheng Tsung-lung and Huang Yi: Wicked Fish, The Wall and Beckoning. More information. Watch Local 2017: Singapore Telemovies, 7-11
6 – 12 Feb 2017: Singapore Read More »
Dance is a visual and sensory medium. It is a close cousin of music. Dance is very ancient, and has been used to express our hopes and fears even before language existed. Hence, when in the theatre, let the dancers lead you to breathe, to move and to run, then to recall that there is
“Dance can break down walls”: Interview with Cloud Gate 2’s Cheng Tsung-lung Read More »
Six performance works stood out for their bold placement of the body center-stage: Softmachine Rianto, an Indonesian-Singaporean dance and video collaboration; Skin, a challenging work from Malaysia on human trafficking; Cambodia’s Phare Circus, in which performers perform the seemingly impossible; As If To Nothing, a Hong Kong dance piece on the mutability of memory; Twelfth
OzAsia Festival: Celebrating Asian Dance and Theatre Down Under Read More »
A pop-up market of contemporary luxury goods being sold to a wealthy elite doesn’t begin to encapsulate the diversity of languages, countries, and cultures of the region, not to mention the many kinds of artistic spaces and projects embedded therein, all of which are largely unseen at Art Stage. Like Singapore’s mega-city aspirations of being
Everything Points Inward: Capitalism and Its Discontents at an Art Fair in Singapore Read More »
Duration: 27 minutes Dance educator and writer Stephanie Burridge joins Matt Lyon in discussing Dance Nucleus‘ HATCH, a showcase of works-in-progress by the company’s artists-in-residence: Felicia Lim, Wayne Ong & Leia Ang and Yarra Ileto as well as Maya Dance Theatre’s Release 6.0. They share their thoughts on each of the works, also discussing the role
Podcast 10: HATCH 2017 and Release 6.0 Read More »
Can Tieu Hy is one of the most prominent young artists in the Vietnamese comic scene, known for her refined drawing techniques and stories with mysterious, supernatural elements. From nearly 300 submissions, hers was one of a total of 14 winners, including one Gold Award and three Silver Award winners, that were chosen following the selection
Supernatural Vietnamese Comic “Gateway to Underworld” Wins International Manga Award Read More »
The move towards showcasing Bruneian art to the world can increasingly be felt, with the Russian ambassador to Brunei recently remarking that works of Bruneian artists deserve to be seen in the international market to help the world to know more about the Sultanate. The Brunei Arts Forum is a locally-based collective of Bruneian artists
Bringing Bruneian Art To The World (via The Culture Trip) Read More »
Indonesia’s rich history of storytelling is reflected in its growing pool of talented writers. The Ubud Writers and Readers Festival provided an ideal backdrop to explore how a lack of quality translation is impacting the literary industry. Tags: Indonesian Literature
In celebration of the National Arts Month in February 2017, the University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD) recuperates the kuwentong bayan (folk narratives such as epics, myths, legends, folk tales, etc.) as important repository of ideas, information and even knowledge through a festival billed Salaysayan: K’wentong Byan, Kaalamang Bayan (Storytelling: Folk Narratives, Folk Knowledge). Tags:
Under the Canopy and other poems, which first came out in late 1998, was the first ever English-language collection of poems produced in Negara Brunei Darussalam. There is a very long tradition of writing poetry—especially sajak and ghazal and pantun—in Bahasa Melayu in Brunei Darussalam (for example, the epic Syair Awang Simawn), but here I
An Anthology of English Poetry from Brunei (via Cha: An Asian Literary Journal) Read More »
By Akanksha Raja (1200 words, 20-minute read) There are so many performance modes packed into the approximately 70 minutes of FIGHT! PALAST #membersonly – confessional monologue, workshops, live fighting, interactive sketches – that it is difficult to classify. Performance makers have been using this form of super-hybridity for a while now, but it still takes
3 #Millennials Read “Fight Club”. You Won’t Believe What Happens Next! Read More »
Thailand’s Paradise Bangkok Molam International Band has reinvented molam music, an often-dismissed traditional rural genre, and given it a new life world-wide. Tags: Molam
Thailand’s Traditional Molam Music Finds New Groove (via Wall Street Journal) Read More »
Most of the prints/book covers are from the 1960’s and 70’s, “a period of Myanmar/Yangon artwork that had been completely neglected,” Percival explained. “No one had looked at it [the art] before so it was just kind of sitting there on the shelves and no one had used it.” While older imagery from the early
Preserving the art of 1960’s and 70’s Yangon Read More »
We said that the commercial theatre companies would put on fewer musicals and we were right. From their independent counterparts we expected more international collaboration thanks to support from foreign cultural institutions and again our words were prophetic. Now we are predicting that these two trends will continue in 2017. With the official mourning period
Pawit Mahasarinand foresees Thai theatre in 2017 for The Nation Read More »
In Railway Sleepers, a minutely observed film shot entirely on-board a Thai train, we see kids on school trips, young men travelling north and south, hawkers selling food and horoscope books, families and lovers, vacationers who turn the sleeping car into a party venue. They’re passengers, and they’re also humans. They are, as director Sompot
As their lead single Colossal suggested, the veteran outfit haven’t lost a step in the preceding decade, jumping right back into a sea of distortion and wash of sound. But it’s more than just those stylistic hallmarks – their new seven-track release makes you feel the same feels that prime Astreal did – which probably means that prime Astreal never
Singapore indie rock outfit Astreal shines a “Light”, their first album in over a decade Read More »
Bangkok Post interviews Tada Hendsapkul, on his latest exhibition, “The Things That Take Us Apart”. “I have fallen in love with the language of human bodies. Bodies are more interesting than objects because there are also the minds that are hidden under, and their complexity shifts according to time…” Tags: Nudity Tada Hengsapkul
Thai photographer Tada Hengsapkul probes the naked at Gallery Seescape Read More »
…The North’s art scene is tightly controlled – there is no abstract art, which is regarded as anti-revolutionary – and even the top artists earn monthly salaries that bear little relation to the sale value of their work. “We produce pieces that are demanded by revolution, that move people to revolution,” says Hong Chun-Ong… Tags:
See what’s made to order at North Korea’s blacklisted art factory (The Nation) Read More »
Deruma by Azpirasi & Dian Dancers, 26 – 27 Jan at Esplanade Theatre Studio Presented as part of Esplanade Theatre’s Pentas series, which is its second annual programme of Malay arts, apart from Pesta Raya. Deruma follows the local folktale of Si Tanggang. It’s a story about filial piety and gratitude told through Malay dance and traditional
23 – 29 Jan 2017: Singapore Read More »
…dive into the making of Singapore’s first feature film selected for competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival with Director Kirsten Tan and Producer Weijie Lai. Tags: Kirsten Tan Pop Aye
Podcast interview with “Pop Aye” Director Kirsten Tan & Producer Weijie Lai Read More »
Gaslight Cafe presents Alena Murang, 17 Jan, 9pm Gaslight Cafe at Bukit Damansara shines the spotlight on young Bornean singer-songwriter Alena Murang, whose debut EP, Flight, was released last year. A graduate from the music programme at LASALLE College of the Arts, Alena play folk music of the Kelabit and Kenyah tribes, using the traditional lute instrument
16 – 22 Jan 2017: Malaysia Read More »
SWF POP #15: Screening of Between The Lines: Rant & Rave II, 18 Jan at The Projector This is a screening of a recorded theatre production, Between The Lines: Rant & Rave II, a 2012 play by award-winning playwright Chong Tze Chien. Restaged at the Singapore Writers Festival 2016 featuring actors Serene Chen and Jean Ng,
16 – 22 Jan 2017: Singapore Read More »
We’re barely into the new year, but the dedicated art lover is, no doubt, already exhausted from the recently concluded M1 Singapore Fringe Festival and Singapore Art Week. Pace yourselves, as there are more festivals across Southeast Asia over the next month. January M1 Fringe Festival: Art & Skin, Singapore : 4 – 15 January 2017
Southeast Asia in Arts Festivals: Jan – Feb 2017 Read More »
“Sensitive and nuanced, this piece is almost like a Judith Butler essay, popping at the seams with its investigation of gender and the way it is performed, mimed, mocked and torn apart basically.” Tags: LGBT M1 Singapore Fringe Festival Tan Liting
Judith Butchler – Review of Tan Liting’s “Pretty Butch” at M1 Fringe Read More »
Tags: The Nation World Film Festival of Bangkok
The Nation’s preview of World Film Festival of Bangkok (Jan 23 – Feb 1) Read More »
By Akanksha Raja (1800 words, 15-minute read) Continuing our look back on regional arts events in 2016, we consider what the buzz was on the main writers’ festivals held in Southeast Asia. Georgetown Literary Festival: 25 – 17 November 2016 The theme for this sixth edition of GTLF is the Welsh word “Hiraeth”, translating into
Writing the Region: SEA Literary Festivals in 2016 Read More »
Datang Untuk Kembali (Arriving to Return), 13 Jan, 6:30 PM The performance starts at The Exhibition Hall, Block 43 Malan Road. Part of CITIES FOR PEOPLE NTU CCA Ideas Fest 2016-2017, it is a collaboration between artist duo indieguerillas, fashion designer Lulu Lutfi Labibi, and music director Ari Wulu. The performance will move between different locations
9 – 15 January 2017: Singapore Read More »
