New Margins Exhibition Tour and Book Launch, DECK, 20 April 7pm Art is often seen as intimidating and distant. What if you held art in your hands, like a book? Can books be seen as art medium, like a painting or a sculpture instead of an object to be purchased in a book shop? This […]
Weekly Picks: Singapore (16 – 22 April 2018) Read More »
Dapunta Hyang: Transmission of Knowledge by Zai Kuning returns from its showing at the 2017 Venice Biennale for a month long exhibition at Theatreworks Singapore. The exhibition runs from 12 April through 13 May 2018. A series of public talks and performances are planned. On 19 April, Professor John N.Miksic will present a public lecture,
Zai Kuning’s “Dapunta Hyang”: Homeward Bound From Venice Read More »
By Kathy Rowland (400 words, 3 minute read) “I asked her out six times in thirty seconds.” In 2013, a Youtube video by slam poet Neil Hilborn went viral. In the clip, Hilborn delivers an impassioned performance of OCD, a poem that celebrates, then eulogies, a love affair that falls victim to one lover’s obsessive
SIFA 2018: “OCD Love”‘s Dancing in the Face of Love Read More »
Alice in Wonderland by L’arietta, Aliwal Arts Centre, 29 Mar – 1 Apr This Easter, take a trip down the rabbit hole with your kids and your parents as Lewis Carroll’s classic tale of whimsy and wonder come to life again, reimagined into a 75-minute opera with a modern spin, which promises to be fantastical fun
Weekly Picks: Singapore (26 March – 1 April 2018) Read More »
This is the book to own or read if you are in any way invested, connected and working with children as well as people with special needs. It is exactly as the title says: an effort to be inclusive, empowering and celebrate all people. The book is divided into five sections: Inclusive dance pedagogy; Equality,
Good Southeast Asian literature and its related commentary can be hard to find for some of the people living in this region’s – however, it is possible. One such gem is the Mekong Review, a quarterly literary journal that aims to bring the region’s literary and intellectual life to a broader audience. Publishing fiction, essays, reviews
Mekong Review, The Accidental Southeast Asian Literary Journal (via Eksentrika) Read More »
Dinh Q. Lê: Monuments and Memorials, Singapore Tyler Print Institute, 17 Mar – 12 May 2018 Dinh Q. Le’s “Splendor and Darkness” series of woven photographs is a depiction of the Cambodian history that blends images of Khmer temples with portraits of Khmer Rouge victims killed at Tuol Sleng. Singapore Tyler Print Institute presents these
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Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Bali, Solo, Yogyakarta and Jakarta from 19 – 25 March 2018 On Thursday, in Central Java, there are 2 music performances to watch for your Thursday night art entertainment. In Solo, the Parkiran Jazz series presents “Wanita Berkarya”, a jazz night dedicated to women. The night will feature
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By Akanksha Raja The Singapore International Festival of Arts 2018 is just over a month away, and the programme offers an extensive palette of art and performance not only from Singapore but also as farther afield as Germany, Palestine, India, Cape Verde, and more. It’s hard to define or label the types of shows on
SIFA 2018: Top Ten Picks for the Art Lover Read More »
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Bali, Yogyakarta and Jakarta from 12 – 18 March 2018 Start your week with a ceramic workshop that also helps support coastal and marine ecosystems! The Coral Triangle Center (CTC), a non-profit foundation that promotes the conservation of marine biology, organizes a Coral Wall Ceramic Workshop this Monday.
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Textures – A Weekend With Words, The Arts House, 9 – 11 March Presented by The Arts House and co-commissioned by #BuySingLit, Textures – A Weekend With Words is an inaugural literary festival taking place from 9 – 11 March, chockablock with performances, workshops, book-themed exhibitions, and over 30 panel discussions, all in honour of homegrown literature, and the
Weekly Picks: Singapore (5 – 11 March 2018) Read More »
By Corrie Tan (1,300 words, eight-minute read) We’ve all met the gaze of this pair of narrow, red-pupilled eyes – whether with a torchlight under the bedcovers, or in school, snuck into class beneath a desk. The predatory stare on the cover of Russell Lee’s True Singapore Ghost Stories still follows us from the shelves
“Out of Print”: classic Singaporean texts get a contemporary makeover Read More »
By Akanksha Raja Presented by The Arts House and co-commissioned by #BuySingLit, Textures – A Weekend With Words is an inaugural literary festival taking place from 9 – 11 March, chockablock with performances, workshops, book-themed exhibitions, and over 30 panel discussions, all in honour of homegrown literature, and the energetic, growing community that has contributed and
ArtsEquator’s Picks: TEXTURES, A Weekend with Words Read More »
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Bali from 19 – 25 February 2018 We begin our first pick this week in Jakarta with the launch of Goenawan Mohamad’s new book: Si Majenun dan Sayid Hamid. In his new book, Goenawan discusses several areas from the famous Spanish novel Don Quixote, particularly
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (19 – 25 February 2018) Read More »
It may be the week leading up to the Lunar New Year weekend, but amid the festivities and holiday mood, there is still a wide variety of arts events to attend to get your culture fix! Love. Lies. Tricks by Performance Program at LASALLE College of the Arts, 13 – 14 Feb, 8pm Director of
Weekly Picks: Singapore (12 – 18 February 2018) Read More »
Cambodian-American poet Sokunthary Svay is tired of hearing about the Khmer Rouge. After concluding a yearlong review of Cambodian literature available in English, Svay found that nearly every accessible text about the country of her birth concerned either Angkor Wat, the ancient Angkorian Kingdom, the Khmer Rouge, or memoirs written by Cambodians who survived the
A Child of Cambodian Refugees Finds her Past through Poetry (via Electric Literature) Read More »
Live at Reading Room: UnFree & Unspoken by Ethos Books, The Reading Room, 26 Jan, 8pm At The Reading Room (Downtown Gallery, #02-09/10), Ethos Books presents a poetry reading by local poets Joshua Ip, Theophilus Kwek and Marylyn Tan at Yellow Bash. In UnFree (8.00 – 9.00 pm), Joshua Ip and Theophi Kwek will introduce
22 – 28 January 2018: Singapore Read More »
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Riau, Jakarta, Bandung and Yogyakarta from 22 – 28 January 2018 RIAU Festival Musik Rimbang Baling, 22-28 January 2018, Koto Lamo, Kampar Kiri Hulu, Kampar, Riau. Immerse yourself in nature and come to this unique music festival while supporting nature conservation efforts! Presented with a theme “Menyemai
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This is not a book about films. It is a book about how films and other forms of popular culture point to the places where interests, positions and desires come together, especially on issues of religious, ethnic and national identity. The author, Ariel Heryanto, examines the complex and negotiated feelings of belonging to religious, ethnic
Book Review: Identity and pleasure, on screen (via Inside Indonesia) Read More »
In her article, “The Persistent Presence of Cambodian Spirits: Contemporary Knowledge production in Cambodia”*, Courtney Work argues that the presence of spirits in Cambodian culture has been made a subjacent subject in the dialogue of empire, but that the human culture of this complex nation cannot be properly explained without reference to the “other-than-human world”.
Ghost Stories (via Mekong Review) Read More »
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Bali from 15 – 21 January 2018 JAKARTA Sastra, Hoaks & Humaniora, 17 January 2018, 4 – 7 PM, Dewan Kesenian Jakarta Come join the Jakarta Arts Council’s literature committee in their 10th public lecture titled Sastra, Hoaks & Humaniora. This 10th edition
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How does contemporary art in Singapore and Malaysia reflect an alternative to the dominant narrative of history? June Yap’s book produces a concept of ‘Malayan’ history from the 1950s till 2010s through a selection of contemporary art from the region. In re-defining history through these works, Yap is reformulating the vocation of an art historian,
Can you describe the mood of Singapore as you feel/see it? Singapore is how your favorite prawn noodle hawker auntie still remembers you take your meal with extra chili even after you’ve been out of town for six months; Singapore is the scrawny kid in the playground whose name no one can remember—until with showy
The City and the Writer: In Singapore with Amanda Lee Koe (via Words Without Borders) Read More »
Thought Lines – An exhibition by Berny Tan, at Supernormal, 333 Kreta Ayer Road, 11 – 28 Jan In her first solo exhibition, Berny Tan presents a new series of twenty abstract embroideries, reflecting on the medium’s obsessive nature through the repetitive motion of stitching. Each study is created by adhering to sets of written
8 – 14 January 2018: Singapore Read More »
It is unlikely that, while writing her novel Once We Were There, Bernice Chauly foresaw the events currently taking place in Malaysia’s political landscape. Yet, the timing of the book’s publication now, set in Kuala Lumpur at the height of the 1990s Reformasi era, seems uncanny. Early December last year, Malaysia’s main opposition party, the
Writing the Reformasi: Bernice Chauly’s “Once We Were There” Read More »
2017 was an eventful year for the arts in Singapore, full of the promising and the problematic. While there were the good, such as new projects and plans to develop the cultural landscape in exciting ways, there were also the not so good: controversies or conflicts that have spawned endless debates and infinite scrolling through
Ten Newsmakers of the Year in the Arts Read More »
The Philippine Daily Inquirer, founded on Dec. 9, 1985, as part of the “mosquito press,” helped dismantle the Marcos dictatorship in February 1986. With the new dispensation followed a liberalization of attitudes, newfound freedom of expression, the democratization of the arts, and a check on art patronage, as practiced by the previous administration. This led
32 Defining Moments in Philippine Arts and Culture since 1985 Read More »
THEATRE Southernmost: 1 Table 2 Chairs Project by Emergency Stairs, 12 – 24 December, The Arts House Presented by up-and-coming experimental theatre company Emergency Stairs, the first edition Southernmost is a theatre festival which brings the most outstanding and established traditional and contemporary theatre artists from the region together in this red dot for an intensive
11 – 17 December 2017: Singapore Read More »
Since he broke into the literary scene in his teens, Malaysian writer and academic, Dr Faizal Musa, better know by his pen name, Faisal Tehrani, has written several best selling and critically acclaimed novels and short stories. His articles on issues of culture, human rights and religion have also appeared in periodicals, newspapers and blogs.
Faisal Tehrani: From Poster Boy to Pariah Read More »
Graphic novelist Sonny Liew made history as the first Singaporean to win at the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the “Oscars for comics”, held in July 2017 at Comic-Con International, San Diego, USA. The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, which retells the life of a comic artist growing up in pre-independence Singapore, won not just one
