Grace Baey’s Portraits of Yangon’s Trans Population (via Coconuts Yangon)
Some photographers are able to capture the most delicate moments deftly. With her project Living Choices, Singapore-based shooter Grace Baey showed her ability to do just that. Baey spent one month in Yangon taking pictures of the city’s trans population for the…
“Private Parts”: Sometimes You’ve Got to Fix What God Gave You
By Eugene Tan (1720 words, six-minute read) This review contains some spoilers of a few of the sight gags and plot points in Private Parts. Private Parts was first performed in 1992, and in this staging, it hasn’t been re-written….
Budget leaves arts and culture out in the cold (via The Star)
THE fact that arts and culture has the lowest priority in government planning was borne out by Budget 2019. Except for the RM30mil allocation for the National Film Development Corporation (Finas) under the Communications and Multimedia Ministry, there is no…
An Interview with Dr June Yap: President’s Young Talents 2018
The seventh edition of the President’s Young Talents exhibition (PYT) opened 4 October 2018 at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM). Since its first presentation in 2001, the platform has presented 38 artists, including this year’s Chen Yanyun, Chong Weixin, Debbie…
Mirrored Interrogations
By Eunice Lacaste (1000 words, four-minute read) In post-colonial Southeast Asia, the constraint of politically-engaged artworks is not uncommon. One can see the spatial and temporal struggles through telling cases from the region: last July, Seven Decades was a retrospective…
A History of Violence: The Sharp Edges of “Cerita Cinta”
By Nabilah Said (1000 words, four-minute read) The most powerful moment of akulah BIMBO SAKTI’s Cerita Cinta is the end. To be perfectly clear, it is a dream of a production. The six-person ensemble is tight, the design is exacting,…
Vietnam’s Award-Winning Documentary About a Trans Woman (via Saigoneer)
A critically acclaimed documentary about a member of Vietnam’s trans community will finally see an official premiere in Vietnam next month. Finding Phong, or Di Tim Phong in Vietnamese, tells the story of the titular character, a trans woman named Le Anh…
Ombak Potehi: the Malaysian group reviving traditional Hokkien puppetry (via SEA Globe)
In the performance room of Penang House of Music, a museum dedicated to the musical history of this Unesco-listed Malaysian island, a crowd claps excitedly. They are cheering the group of young performers who get up from behind the stage,…
Foolishness and Enlightenment in “Lear is Dead”
By Casidhe Ng (1,200 words, six-minute read) “You are a madman, and we are but fools,” the ensemble resounds. So begins Nine Years’ Theatre’s Lear is Dead, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear that borrows from the Chinese opera tradition,…
Truth or Dare with “Lear is Dead”
By Teo Xiao Ting (1,069 words, six-minute read) After a gleaming heap of corpses dissipates into the afterlife and comes back for a closing bow, Lear is Dead ends with the quiver of revelation. But wait, what was it exactly…
“8888 Uprising”: Thirty Years Later
By Sharaad Kuttan (650 words, four-minute read) Despite the flash of contemporary retail – some garish, some tasteful – Yangon’s old-world charms prevail. Today, walking past the crumbling moss-covered walls that advertise the pleasures of late 20th century globalisation –…
Rianto’s “Medium”: Of Journeys, Transformations & Corporeality
By Nirmala Seshadri (990 words, four-minute read) Total darkness. The sound of sleep. Sleep of an eternal sort. Slowly the light reveals a solitary human body conveying a sense of sleep or is it semi-consciousness? Now, the entry of…
26th ENCATC Congress: Beyond European Year of Cultural Heritage – Key Reflections (via culture360.ASEF.org)
The 26th ENCATC Congress on Cultural Management and Policy on “Beyond EYCH2018. What is the cultural horizon? Opening up perspectives to face ongoing transformations” concluded recently in Bucharest, Romania and looked to cultural priorities in Europe beyond EYCH or the European Year of Cultural…
“Closer” at Both Sides, Now: What Do We Choose to Remember?
By Loo Zihan (1430 words, six-minute read) “What will we forget? What do we hold on to? What will we remember? What do we let go of?” These were the questions posed by a volunteer in Mandarin to my 67-year-old…
Staring down the male gaze: Chuu Wai Nyein (via Frontier Myanmar)
A quick squeeze of a breast and the motorbike-riding groper was already vanishing into the Mandalay traffic. Ma Chuu Wai Nyein barely saw it happen. It would have been easy to forget and not make a scene, as usual, and…
On Taipei Arts Festival with Tang Fu Kuen
By Yuka Sugiyama (480 words, three-minute read) The Taipei Arts Festival (TAF) began in 1998 as one of the main festivals in Taipei to mark the city’s contemporary consciousness through the staging of multiple artistic activities for international and national…
On the Indonesian Dance Festival with Maria Darmaningsih
As part of ArtsEquator’s series of interviews profiling festival directors in Southeast Asia, we get to learn more about Maria Darmaningsih, co-founder and current artistic director of the bi-annual Indonesian Dance Festival (IDF), which was launched in 1992. Its 14th edition…
Some Southeast Asian picks from the Busan International Film Festival (via Bangkok Post)
How do Aceh and Japan, two places that seem unrelated, separated by a vast distance of land and sea, connect on the personal and historical level? For one, they both have been hit by a tsunami — Aceh in the…
“Peter and the Starcatcher”: An Invitation to Suspend Disbelief
By Casidhe Ng (1,100 words, six-minute read) The final show of Pangdemonium’s 2018 season, Peter and the Starcatcher is this year’s equivalent of Fun Home or RENT, an exuberant and expensive production intent on ending their year with a bang….
Growing up Everywhere and Nowhere in “Peter and the Starcatcher”
By Teo Xiao Ting (1,300 words, seven-minute read) What does it mean to be a child? Specifically, what does it mean to be growing up, to be young, in this milieu? While set in the sepia of 1885, Peter and…
Vietnam to Ban Gratuitous Smoking in Movies, Stage Productions (via Saigoneer)
Starting from November, filmmakers will need to carefully deliberate their decision to include smoking in their works or risk the ire of the culture ministry. As Tuoi Tre reports, from November 15 this year, Circular 25 by the Ministry of Culture, Sports…
![[Podcast] Arts Apart: Where Are Sabah and Sarawak in the Malaysian Arts? (via BFM)](https://artsequator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/frontrow-alena-murang--455x250.jpg)
[Podcast] Arts Apart: Where Are Sabah and Sarawak in the Malaysian Arts? (via BFM)
With Malaysia Day just around the corner, there is a lot of conversation happening about East Malaysia. But why do Sabah and Sarawak mostly come to our minds only when it is time to celebrate Malaysia Day? The arts and…
“xhe”: Caught Between a Square and an Octopus
By Loo Zihan (1460 words, six-minute read) To preface: a statement to disclaim. Artist-choreographer-dancer Daniel Kok and visual artist Miho Shimizu remind the viewer in an artist statement[1] for xhe that any response to the performance is always already inadequate,…
“Until the Lions” by Akram Khan Company: What About the Lioness?
By Jocelyn Chng (1160 words, six-minute read) Until the Lions, a work that premiered in 2016 at the Roundhouse in London, is presented as one of the main (Centrestage) programmes at the 2018 Esplanade da:ns festival. The Akram Khan Company…
“Invisible Habitudes”: Postcards From a Choreographer’s Journey
By Chan Sze Wei (1090 words, five-minute read) T.H.E. Dance Company turns 10 this year and Invisible Habitudes, a da:ns festival commission, reads as an eclectic postcard of the artistic signature of Kuik Swee Boon. The company, and Kuik himself,…
Open Calls and Job Opportunities: October 2018 (Singapore)
Check out the list below to find out the list of open calls and job opportunities that are currently available in Singapore: IMPART Awards 2019 Open Call for Submissions Calling all Singaporean & PR Visual Artists and Curators: The IMPART…
Coda Culture: A Space for Freedom
As told to Akanksha Raja In the latest instalment in our series covering independent art spaces in Southeast Asia, ArtsEquator.com spoke with artist Seelan Palay to learn about his practice, his inspirations, and his journey setting up the independent alternative…
“Hijrah”: In Between Body and Gender ‘Migration’
By Michael HB Raditya (1018 words, five-minute read) Read this review in Bahasa Indonesia. Baca review ini dalam Bahasa Indonesia. Rianto, 37, has attracted public attention with his Lengger Lanang dance performance. This dance is a type of dance from Banyumas that…
“Hijrah”: Tubuh di Antara dan Migrasi Gender
By Michael HB Raditya (1000 words, five-minute read) Read this review in English. Baca review ini dalam Bahasa Inggeris. Sejak kemunculannya, Rianto Manali (37) telah mencuri perhatian publik dengan tari yang ia pertunjukkan. Adalah Lengger Lanang, salah satu jenis tari dari Banyumas…
SMU Series: More Than Just Managers, Enabling the Arts
This article is the third in a series of essays by students from the Singapore Management University Arts and Culture Management programme. By Carissa Lim (1480 words, four-minute read) The arts has always been a significant and cherished part of…