Podcast 68: Critics Live! Wild Rice’s Merdeka
Theatre critics Corrie Tan, Nabilah Said, Carolyn Oei and Kathy Rowland discuss the recent production of WILD RICE’s Merdeka / 獨立 /சுதந்திரம், in a critics-led post-show conversation held in front of an audience on 19 October 2019 at WILD RICE’s…
Progress at work: “Forward Shift” at da:ns festival
By Bernice Lee (1,507 words, 7-minute read) Forward Shift, a new platform for works-in-progress within Esplanade’s da:ns festival, begins with much fanfare. Members of the public were treated to three performance experiments featuring artists whose artistic and audience development have…
Rage or Loss: Women in Photography 2019 | Remedy For Rage
By Elaine Chiew (1,050 words, 6-minute read) Now in its fifth edition, Objectifs returns with its annual showcase in the Women in Film and Photography series. From its early years of blockbuster-ish exhibitions held in conjunction with Magnum or featuring…
Jelmaan Baharu Teater Tradisional dalam “Hikayat Cendawan Putih”
Oleh Fasyali Fadzly (1,120 patah kati, 6-minit bacaan) Antara pengarah teater yang kurang dicanang dan disebut-sebut dalam pementasan teater kontemporari adalah Sharul Mizad atau lebih senang dikenali sebagai Ejad. Beliau merupakan graduan terawal Akademi Seni Kebangsaan (kini ASWARA) bersama beberapa…
The architecture of patriarchy: The Professor by Faisal Tehrani
By Lily Jamaludin (1,650 words, 7-minute read) Trigger warning: Descriptions of sexual assault. This review contains spoilers for The Professor. I began Faisal Tehrani’s new novel, The Professor, with the hope that he might provide some new images for Malaysian…
Podcast 67: Urinetown and Lim Boon Keng – The Musical
Theatre reviewers Matt Lyon and Naeem Kapadia are joined by ArtsEquator editor Nabilah Said in this newly rebooted theatre podcast discussing recent productions Urinetown: The Musical by Pangdemonium, and Lim Boon Keng – The Musical by Musical Theatre Ltd. This…
Merantau Sejarah/Identiti Selat Melaka: Name Laundering oleh Irwan Ahmett dan Tita Salina
Oleh Fasyali Fadzly (1,150 patah kati, 6-minit bacaan) Jauh perjalanan, luas pandangan. Mungkin itulah prinsip yang diambil oleh dua orang seniman Jakarta, Irwan Ahmett dan Tita Salina apabila mengambil keputusan untuk menjalankan kajian sosial dan artistik selama 10 tahun menjejaki…
Fantasy issues: “Princess” by Eisa Jocson
By Chan Sze-Wei (786 words, 4-minute read) I’ve recently been reading articles about how childhood trauma is determinative of one’s risk of future health issues from asthma to cancer. Also how ancestral trauma is recorded in our DNA. Snow White…
Podcast 66: M1 CONTACT & New Works Platforms (Part 2)
Podcast host Chan Sze-Wei and guest Melissa Quek discuss new works platforms at the M1 CONTACT Contemporary Dance Festival, as well as other new works platforms organised by dance companies and entities in Singapore such as Dance Nucleus, P7:1SMA and…
BACC: Whose art centre is it anyway?
By Siriwat Pokrajen (1,180 words, 6-minute read) Anyone following the news about the Thai art scene must have already known about all the rough storms the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) has been sailing through in the past couple…
This is what succession looks like: The Finger Players
By Corrie Tan (3,800 words, 15-minute read) I. “They are constantly making magic look like it’s very simple.” You could call it love at first sight – the moment Ellison Tan and Myra Loke encountered The Finger Players, they…
A Bigger Party Than Expected: Honouring Rex Shelley at SWF 2019
By Akanksha Raja (830 words, 4-minute read) On 1 November, The Arts House plays host to an unlikely wedding celebration titled A Bigger Party Than Expected, which features “silent disco” dances to an Eurasian folk song, multidisciplinary art installations,…
The working processes of artists: Tim De Cotta
In this video, LASALLE students Nicole Kessler and Marian Saturno speak to musician Tim De Cotta on his (many) musical influences, how he talks about social issues through music and how to keep your art pure. Tim De Cotta is…
RAW Moves’ “Being, and Organs” and the unbearable whiteness of Block O
By Nabilah Said (890 words, 5-minute read) Draw a straight line. Draw a straight line freehand Draw a straight line freehand, with a 100g weight attached to your wrist. Repeat, ad nauseam. The moment you walk into Goodman Arts Centre’s…
CRITICS LIVE: A post-show response to “Merdeka”
Join critics Corrie Tan, Nabilah Said, Carolyn Oei and Teo Xiao Ting in a post-show conversation about W!ld Rice’s Merdeka. Critics Live is a critics-led programme series created by ArtsEquator to give arts audiences an insight into how critics formulate…
5 Singapore poems not to quote out of context
By Nabilah Said (2,500 words, 7-minute read) In 1968, Lee Kuan Yew uttered the words “Poetry is a luxury we cannot afford” to a roomful of University of Singapore students. There have been some quibbling over, even mythologising of, what…
Singapore Biennale 2019: Interview with artistic director and curators
By Lee Weng Choy (1,969 words, 7-minute read) Contemporary visual art exhibition the Singapore Biennale 2019 will return on 22 November with Every Step In The Right Direction, featuring artworks by over 70 artists from Singapore, Southeast Asia and beyond….
Translating Homeland: Tanah•Air 水•土: A Play In Two Parts
By Nabilah Said (1,900 words, 7-minute read) In less than a week, Drama Box will premiere Tanah•Air 水•土: A Play In Two Parts, a production revolving around the theme of histories, those that are remembered, and those who are sidelined….
The brutal examinations of “Constellation of Violence”
By Patricia Tobin (561 words, 4-minute read) Constellation of Violence consists of a very simple setup: a giant screen on stage, a historian, two artists and a group of individuals. These elements are combined, in varying degrees, to form…
The Personal, the Humour and the Horror: Interview with Irwan Ahmett
By Patricia Tobin (1,140 words, 6-minute read) The concluding production of TPAM 2019 was Constellation of Violence, a lecture-performance by artist Irwan Ahmett, which focused on the culmination of the Cold War in Indonesia in 1965, from its lead-up…
Say No To Droogs: Teater Ekamatra’s “A Clockwork Orange”
By Faezah Zulkifli (1,020 words, 4-minute read) “ORANG_” The wordplay in Teater Ekamatra’s A Clockwork Orange is no accident. An inventive linguist, author Anthony Burgess, who lived in Malaysia in the 1950s, borrowed the title for his magnum opus from…
The working processes of artists: Sheng player Michael Lee
In this video, LASALLE students Michelle Fonseca and Hazeline Ali speak to Sheng player Michael Lee, who has played the classic Chinese musical instrument for more than 50 years. Being a Sheng maestro has brought Michael Lee all around the…
Contortions and Gentle Songs: SEA at Venice Biennale
By Teo Xiao Ting (1,414 words, 6-minute read) A vivacious viscous zoo swirling with prestige and art, the Venice Biennale spins me exhausted after 45 days. When I was asked to write about the Southeast Asian artworks I’ve encountered here,…
Music as a love language: “Love! Be: Sing;”
By Shahril Salleh ( 1,000 words, 6-minute read) As cultural icons go, very few choirs have the same gravitas and history as the SYC Ensemble Singers. This ensemble is led by Cultural Medallion winner Jennifer Tham, the beloved doyen of…
The Traditional Body, The Contemporary Mind and The (Dancing) Mother
By January Low (1,693 words, 7-minute read) A little over a year ago, I was invited to be a part of MI(X)G, Festival Tokyo’s 2018 opening production, and the cherry on the sundae was to work together with legendary Thai…
Discovering and Re-discovering Kluang: The INXO International Residency Programme
By Akanksha Raja (1,493 words, 6-minute read) It’s almost 4pm as the KTM train I’m travelling on trudges to a slow halt at the railway station in Kluang, Johor. The first thing that catches my eye is Kluang Rail Coffee,…
Seven Views of “Seven Views of Redhill”
By Nabilah Said (1,670 words, 7-minute read) We are in a rehearsal for Seven Views of Redhill. Well, not me – I am just a hanger-on trying to fold myself into a corner of the Chesterfield-like sofa backed up…
The disturbing cruelty of Terre Thaemlitz’s “Deproduction”
By Luke Macaronas (765 words, 5-minute read) Content warning: References to sexual content, situations and violence The final line of Terre Thaemlitz’s Deproduction reads: “Admit it’s killing you, and leave.” It is a neat summary of the work—a deeply nihilistic…
Disturbing behaviour: “Deproduction” by Terre Thaemlitz
By Patricia Tobin (670 words, 4-minute read) Content warning: References to sexual content or situations Deproduction by musician-producer Terre Thaemlitz was released on December 28, 2017 as a multimedia album consisting of audio, video and text. In TPAM 2019,…
The working processes of artists: Raka Maitra from CHOWK
In this video, LASALLE students Ernie Martha and Raesmi Nambiar speak to Raka Maitra, founder and artistic director of CHOWK, on the practice of contemporary dance in Singapore, her roots as a classical Odissi dancer in India and the challenges…