Policy Archives

Cambodian FB users rage over dance ownership (via The Nation)

August 31, 2018 18:20 United Nations’ cultural agency Unesco’s Facebook page has hosted a heated debate between Cambodians and Thais over Bangkok’s proposal for the inclusion of “khon” masked dance on the agency’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Social network users across the border have claimed the dance was Cambodian, not Thai, in Facebook comments since […]

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Weekly Picks: Indonesia (27 August – 2 September 2018)

Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Yogyakarta and Jakarta from 27 August 2018 – 2 September 2018 The City of Yogyakarta is full of exciting events this week. On Monday and Tuesday, Hongkong’s Theatre Ash, in collaboration with Studio Tari Banjarmili, presents City of Darkness. Directed by David Glass, City of Darkness is a tragi-comedy

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Podcast 45: On Southeast Asian Film with Rithy Panh and Park Sungho

Duration: 35 mins At SeaShorts 2018, which took place from 1 – 5 August 2018 in George Town, Penang, we caught up with Cambodian film director, screenwriter and producer Rithy Panh, and Park Sungho, programmer for S-Express Cambodia (a selection of Cambodian short films at SeaShorts), who’s also a programmer for the Cambodia International Film

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CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: ArtsEquator’s Reading Group for Critics

Duration: October 2018 – March 2019 “What distinguishes the good, valuable theatre critic … is that you sense that [they are] writing about a cause – about a theatre in his or her mind. The … writing is possibly in some ways cloaked, but it is a crusade.” – “The Theatre Critic as Thinker”, New

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In George Town, a Proxy War for the Nation

By Kathy Rowland (1165 words, 5-minute read) Coloured ink on paper. Only a society that polices gender and sexuality can turn ordinary photos into weapons of mass gay conversion. Over the past eight iterations, the George Town Festival (GTF) has built an international name for itself as a gem of a festival – a small,

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Photo project examines how food challenges the notion of poverty (via SEA Globe)

Since 2010, photographer Stefen Chow and his economist partner Lin Huiyi have been challenging perceptions of what it means to be poor across the globe. Their award-winning project The Poverty Line, which will exhibit at this month’s George Town Festival in Malaysia, compares 29 countries through photographs of the food choices available to those living on the poverty line

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Cambodia’s first contemporary dance company: ‘we were blacklisted for not being Cambodian enough’ (via SEA Globe)

April is hot in Cambodia, with temperatures regularly hitting the mid-30s. And in the tourist town of Siem Reap, performers at New Cambodia Artists (NCA), the country’s first contemporary dance company, lay down in their studio as they wait for the midday heat to pass. The power cut doesn’t help. Several industrial fans stand silent

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An Inconvenient Practice (via Plural Art Magazine)

A recent video released by British diver Rich Horner, showed him swimming through the waters of Bali. Only he wasn’t just swimming amongst the exotic sea life, he was also swimming through an astounding amount of rubbish and plastic that had covered the sea so overwhelmingly it almost seemed as though there was more plastic in the sea than

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Fifield announces $100,000 to grow cultural links with Singapore (via ArtsHub)

The Turnbull Government has announced more than $100,000 for arts and cultural collaborations with Singapore. The funds have been dispersed across four major projects that have been selected for strengthening ties between the two countries. The projects were identified by the Australia Singapore Arts Group, which is driving a program of activities to enhance cultural

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Who pays for art? (via Bangkok Post)

Should museums be funded by the state or by private sponsors? The question looms large with the current problems at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC), the largest publicly-funded art gallery in the country — and with the rise of many private galleries that seem to flourish with the burgeoning art scene. The difficulties at BACC

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What the Arts in Malaysia Needs: More Transparency, Less Intermediaries

By Kathy Rowland (2145 words, 8 minute read) 2 July 2018 – The receding brown moon on millions of Malaysians’ fingernails are a biological marker of the eight weeks since the end of the Najib administration. These past 55 days have seen stunning institutional changes, monitored by an activist public that almost, almost, makes the

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Showcasing a national treasure (via Frontier Myanmar)

CLOSED OFF for decades, in recent years members of the public have been able to enjoy more time inside the grounds of the Secretariat in downtown Yangon, one of the country’s most historically significant buildings. It holds particular importance for the people of Myanmar because it is where eight independence heroes – including Bogyoke Aung San

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Weekly Picks: Malaysia (28 May – 3 June 2018)

By Lainie Yeoh The Narrow Bridge (film screening), at HELP College, 28 May, 8pm Kelab Seni Filem Malaysia and Wayang Budiman are presenting a screening of Indonesian drama The Narrow Bridge. The film is directed by Chaerul Umam, and follows the story of a young Islamic teacher sent to work in a village full of

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Artist charged for illegal one-man procession from Hong Lim to Parliament House (via The Online Citizen)

Seelan Palay, a local artist, has been charged by the Attorney-General’s Chambers for participating in a public procession from Hong Lim Park to the National Gallery, and to the Parliament House on 1 October 2017. It is written in the charge sheet that the public procession is to publicise the cause of “the illegal detention

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Tuckys Photography

“Underclass” twists the knife in your middle-class guilt

Spoiler Alert: If you’re planning to watch Underclass, please note that this review discusses certain plot points. By Corrie Tan (2,200 words, 11-minute read) You know that auntie. You’ve waved her off at the hawker centre, or maybe you’ve apologised, under your breath, because “I already have tissue”. You’ve plotted paths of avoidance around her

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Weekly Picks: Indonesia (14 – 20 May 2018)

Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Jakarta and Bali from 14 – 20 May 2018 Komunitas Salihara is organizing a lecture on the 15th of May 2018 titled 20 Tahun Reformasi: Majukah Rasionalitas dan Budaya Ilmiah Kita? The talk looks at how after 2 decades of reformation, Indonesia is still dealing with basic primordial

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Headache Stencil

Thai street artists send political messages against corruption and military rule with spray and stencils (via SCMP)

A growing number of Thai street artists are turning political and getting their anti-corruption messages across with spray paint. Most keep their identity secret for fear of reprisals from the authorities. South China Morning Post speaks with three artists. There are many ways to fight the establishment, and Headache Stencil does so with graffiti. The

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Weekly Picks: Malaysia (7–13 May 2018)

By Lainie Yeoh GE14 Results Night at Merdekarya 9 May, 5pm until all GE14 results are announced Things get inevitably political this week as Malaysia holds its 14th General Election. Merdekarya will be making an event out of it, with live crowdsourced GE14 results and election-night shenanigans. There’ll be a big screen scoreboard, and

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“Version 2020”: Dataran Merdeka Sebagai Tapak A̶r̶k̶e̶o̶l̶o̶g̶i̶ Ideologi Tentang Masa Depan

Oleh Fasyali Fadzly (1075 patah kata, 9-minit bacaan) Saya mengambil masa yang lama untuk menyiapkan tulisan mengenai teater Version 2020 yang diarahkan oleh Mark Teh. Ia sebuah teater yang memerlukan pengamatan yang tajam, pengetahuan yang luas dan pemahaman terhadap konteks keseluruhan pementasan ini. Kajian teater ini turut mengambil masa yang lama dan penuh kritikal –

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Mai Khoi, ‘Vietnam’s Lady Gaga’, detained for eight hours in Hanoi after European tour (via SEA Globe)

Vietnamese singer and political activist Mai Khoi was detained for eight hours in a move that Human Rights Watch says points to intensified government efforts to stifle political opposition Vietnamese singer and pro-democracy activist Mai Khoi was detained for eight hours by authorities at Hanoi airport yesterday morning as part of an ongoing government crackdown

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Gold ‘flags’ hung by artist Priyageetha Dia removed after residents said they look like joss paper (via Channel NewsAsia)

SINGAPORE: Jalan Besar Town Council has taken down the gold mylar sheets, which were hung by Singapore artist Priyageetha Dia at Block 103 Jalan Rajah four days ago, after receiving complaints from residents saying it reminded them of joss paper. Dr Lily Neo, who is the MP for the Jalan Besar GRC, told Channel NewsAsia on Thursday

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Eva Korinkova

Vietnam’s answer to Pussy Riot furiously dissents (via The Sydney Morning Herald)

Hanoi: Mai Khoi Do Nguyen has long been described as Vietnam’s Lady Gaga. In more recent years, as her political activism has come to the fore, her expressions of rude dissent, she has also been compared to Russia’s infamous protest band, Pussy Riot. Both comparisons hold true, and yet neither do. Mai Khoi is both a serious

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Freelancers in arts sector to get resource centre (via Channel NewsAsia)

A national resource centre will be set up for freelancers in the arts sector to allow them better access to resources, training and networking. Speaking at the Committee of Supply debate for the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY), Parliamentary Secretary Baey Yam Keng said the centre will exist in “both physical and digital

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Seeking to Build Society Through Art: The Cambodian Circus, Phare (via Performing Arts Network Japan)

The Kingdom of Cambodia was established in 1993 after suffering the Vietnam War, the horrors of Pol Pot and his regime, civil war and countless rebellions. The reconstruction of this country has been supported by around 3,500 different international non-government organizations (NGOs), working in many fields, from the environment, to infrastructure, human rights and fighting

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Lao film industry finding its feet on international stage (via SEA Globe)

Despite working with limited funds, the spectre of state censorship and the difficulty of only having three working cinemas in the country, local directors are creating a thriving film industry in Laos Mattie Do does not hold back. In her films, the women drink, they wear lingerie, they steal, they murder. In the final moments

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Malaysian court jails, fines artist for clown caricature of PM (via Reuters)

A Malaysian artist and prominent opposition activist was jailed for a month on Tuesday for publishing a caricature of Prime Minister Najib Razak looking like a clown, a ruling likely to exacerbate concern about free speech. Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy recently announced plans to amend a law to stamp out fake news, the latest step

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Priyageetha Dia, Untitled (Golden Staircase), 2017. Image credit: Priyageetha Dia

Podcast 34: Interview with Priyageetha Dia

Duration: 14 min Latest in our Fresh Blood podcast where we chat with young emerging art-makers and arts workers, we caught up with LASALLE College of the Arts graduate Priyageetha Dia, who, even before graduating last year with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, made something of a name for herself when one of her

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Meta Moeng

Meta Moeng: a bridge-builder in Cambodia’s art world

By Ben Valentine (1,600 words, 10 minute read) Meta Moeng was the first person I met from Cambodia’s arts scene. This was in 2014, and I was eager to learn more about the country’s arts ecology. She was then the community projects manager at SA SA BASSAC (SSB) arts gallery in Phnom Penh, and I

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“The Past is not the Past”, an exhibition to remember (via The Online Citizen)

“The party is not the….”, a visitor beside me squints into a portrait, trying to make out the tiny words handwritten just below it. After the words, an ‘Erica’ is signed. “The past is not the past”, I corrected him. He grins and then realises. That is the name of the exhibition, after all. ===

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22 – 28 January 2018: Singapore

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

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