Articles Archives

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 specific allocation for the creative industries of arts and culture to revitalise traditional arts and […]

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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 Ding, Hilmi Johandi and Zarina Muhammad. David Chan, Grace Tan, Zaki Razak, Roger Nelson, Jason

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Weekly Picks: Malaysia (12–18 Nov 2018)

Bisikan Monsoon — Open Rehearsal, at Selangor & KL Kwang Tung Association, 13 Nov, 5:30pm An invitation to view the rehearsals for Kwang Tung Dance Company’s Bisikan Monsoon (the show is travelling to China later in the month). This opportunity is only open to 10 participants, and registration is required by Monday 12 Nov, with

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Weekly Picks: Indonesia (12 – 18 November 2018)

Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Bali, Bandung and Jakarta from 12 – 18 November 2018 If you’re in Bali, swing by the exhibition “Efek Samping” part of the Futuwonder Project: Masa Subur. The Masa Subur project is an interdisciplinary project that involves women artists in Indonesia. In this particular one, the artists selected

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Weekly Picks: Singapore (12 – 18 November 2018)

667, a Film Screening by Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, 17 – 18 November 2018 Here’s your chance to catch 667 《回程667》 as the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre celebrates the latest win of local filmmaker, Jun Chong, whose debut short film Ke《客》, was awarded the Best Asian Short at the 13th Sapporo International Short Film Festival. The

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Mirrored Interrogations

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 of political prisoners’ narratives in and out of Myanmar that was aptly shown at the Pyinsa Rasa Art Space in the Secretariat

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Tuckys Photography

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, the 90-minute runtime breezes by. Credit goes to presenter The Esplanade for restaging this 1995

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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 Phong who documented the journey from when she decided to undergo sex reassignment surgery to

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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, fatigued and sweaty, holding colourful puppets high above their heads. Their performance tells the story

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Weekly Picks: Malaysia (5– 11 Nov 2018)

IF WALLS COULD TALK vol.55, at The Gaslight Cafe, 8 Nov, 8pm The ever-popular Walls returns with its open mic for spoken word, and featured acts. This chapter features fresh indie band Senja, and writer Zedeck Siew with artist Sharon Chin, who have recently published an illustrated book, Creatures of Near Kingdoms. Cover charge

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Weekly Picks: Singapore (5 – 11 November 2018)

Bras Basah.Bugis Art Sprawl, Handy Road Open Space, outside The Cathay, 9 – 10 November The Bras Basah.Bugis Arts Sprawl is a two-day event that offers an eclectic line-up of arts and heritage offerings for visitors young and old, held along Handy Road Open Space outside The Cathay. ‘Art sprawlers’ can indulge in some “me

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Weekly Picks: Indonesia (5 – 11 November 2018)

Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Bandung, Jakarta, Solo, and Semarang from 5 – 11 November 2018 If you’re in Bandung, come and attend the last day of [NOT] ARTOFFICIAL – OUT OF TRACK, an art exhibition on Ikebana. This exhibition is a collaboration between Indonesian, Japanese, and Vietnamese artists, this exhibition aims to

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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, and a densely layered performance described as a “play-within-a-play”. True to its word, the show

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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 that we gleaned? A sideways glance at the audience around me, and everyone is already

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Dramaturgy Under Capitalism (via Exeunt)

At first encounter, it’s a terrifying word. The first time I came across the title I was still at school, and had just become angrily aware of the existence of Ben Power, a person who somehow had my ideal job. Now the first ever deputy artistic director at the National Theatre, at that point he

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“8888 Uprising”: Thirty Years Later

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 – unlimited wireless connectivity – are slipper-wearing, lungi-wrapped, betel-nut chewing millennials generating unlimited images in a city that only a decade ago still

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Bernie Ng

Rianto’s “Medium”: Of Journeys, Transformations & Corporeality

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 layers and strands of sound. Gentle clink of cymbals. Do I now hear the sound of waves lashing the shore? The lilting sound

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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 Heritage in 2018. ENCATC is the European network on cultural management and policy. Maria Sharon Mapa Arriola tells us

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Zinkie Aw for Both Sides, Now

“Closer” at Both Sides, Now: What Do We Choose to Remember?

“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 mother at a void deck in Chong Pang. She was showing my mom how to make a paper windmill, a souvenir that

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Weekly Picks: Singapore (29 October – 4 November 2018)

Southernmost: One Table Two Chairs Project 2018 by Emergency Stairs, Centre 42, 3 – 10 Nov Catch Southernmost: One Table Two Chairs Project 2018 from 3 to 11 Nov 2018 at Centre 42 – an arts festival for the future presented by experimental theatre company Emergency Stairs. Immerse yourself in a week of artistic experimentation and dialogue across art forms, cultures,

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Weekly Picks: Malaysia (29 Oct – 4 Nov 2018)

Man Bai, at No Black Tie, 30 Oct, 9pm The award-winning singer songwriter Man Bai is best known for his hit single and karaoke staple, Kau Ilhamku. He also has three solo albums. Man Bai will be doing a one night performance in NBT with a special guest appearance by ‘Malaysian Godfather of Rock’ Rahim

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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 perhaps that’s what she would have done if she were the victim. But the groper

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Weekly Picks: Indonesia (28 October – 4 November 2018)

Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Bali and Jakarta from 28 October – 4 November 2018 Sponsored by UNESCO, Borobudur Under the Full Moon is a photography exhibition by Caroline and Hughes Dubois. This exhibition showcases the first photos of Borobudur’s reliefs taken under the moonlight in their actual size. To capture the

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On Taipei Arts Festival with Tang Fu Kuen

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 audiences. This year the TAF celebrates it 20th anniversary with a transformation: it combines with two other city festivals, the Taipei Children’s

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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 this year runs from 6 – 10 November 2018 with pre-event programmes taking place before

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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 massive tragedy that struck many parts of Southeast Asia in 2004 and Japan in 2011.

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“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. In Peter and the Starcatcher, Pangdemonium presents an enchanting narrative with twists of self-reflexivity, fully

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Bernie Ng

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 the Starcatcher by Pangdemonium asks questions that still resonate now, opening up to an extended

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Weekly Picks: Malaysia (22–28 October 2018)

The 11th International Kuala Lumpur Eco Film Festival 2018, at Publika, 22–28 Oct This annual environmental film festival has been here since 2008, and grown over the years in breadth. It tackles a whole host of critical environmental issues, including wildlife protection, pollution, indigenous rights, sustainability and more. This year, KLEFF offers more than 99

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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 and Tourism on smoking in theatrical works will officially take effect, tightening the ministry’s control

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