We asked 11 writers and translators of poetry, fiction and non-fiction to participate in an exquisite corpse-like Q&A session, with each person answering a question and then asking one. These writers, who hail from countries in the Asia Pacific such as Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Japan, are part of the 2021 cohort of …
WrICE 2021: Writers Ask Writers, Asia Pacific edition Read More »
SDEA is holding its first fully online Theatre Arts Conference this year from 22 to 30 May. Expanding from the traditional weekend format to an 8-day event, the conference will feature 70 presentations, workshops, and masterclasses by 64 practitioners from 14 countries. [View some highlight events here] ArtsEquator catches up with two of the conference …
SDEA Theatre Arts Conference Keynote Interviews: Drama lessons in a pandemic (Part 1) Read More »
ArtsEquator organised a webinar titled “Statistically Speaking: Analysing arts audience engagement in Singapore and Australia” on Thursday, 28 January. This panel brought together representatives from the National Arts Council (NAC) and the Australia Council of the Arts to elucidate on recent research results about arts engagement, and discuss what it tells us about the future …
On Thursday, 28 January 11am-12.30pm (GMT +8), representatives from Singapore’s National Arts Council (NAC) and the Australia Council for the Arts will discuss audience attitudes towards the arts in their respective countries in the webinar titled “Statistically Speaking: Analysing Arts Audience Engagement in Singapore and Australia”. (Pre-event registration here) This discussion draws on research survey …
Representatives from Singapore’s National Arts Council (NAC) and the Australia Council for the Arts will discuss audience attitudes towards the arts in their respective countries, based on research survey data collected in 2019 and 2020. What does the data tell us about ourselves and how does this affect new policies and programmes? And what does …
Statistically Speaking: Analysing Arts Audience Engagement in Singapore and Australia Read More »
ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asia Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the region. In the weekly Southeast Asia Radar, we publish a round-up of content that have …
While the pandemic has resulted in losses of jobs in the arts, less has been said about the fate of craftsmen, artisans and masters of intangible heritage and traditional arts. Artists Khin Maung Htwe (Myanmar), Alena Murang (Malaysia) and Jacob Boehme (Australia) will share their experiences in activating tradition and heritage in their work, and …
Burning Questions: Traditional Arts: The Forgotten COVID Casualty? Read More »
Using technology in performance isn’t new, but COVID-19 has forced more artists to explore the digital medium, dealing with lag, latency and liveness while rethinking audience engagement and accessibility. Are we witnessing a new renaissance in the performing arts or an undoing? Is digitalisation just a boogeyman in place of a more difficult conversation? Join …
Burning Questions: Tech in Performance: The Great Leveller or The Great Unequaliser? Read More »
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by By Nabilah Said (1,000 words, 6-minute read) Experimental Chinese theatremaker Wang Chong presented a work-in-progress showing of his newest work, Made in China 2.0, at Asia TOPA in February. Taking the form of a lecture-performance, Made in China 2.0 sees Wang performing …
Interview with Wang Chong for “Made In China 2.0” Read More »
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by In this latest podcast episode, Nabilah Said and Carolyn Oei discuss various productions that were recently presented at Melbourne’s Asia TOPA: Are You Ready To Take The Law Into Your Own Hands | Hades Fading | À Ố Làng Phố | Dragon …
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by In this latest podcast episode, Nabilah Said and Carolyn Oei discuss various productions that were recently presented at Melbourne’s Asia TOPA: Black Ties | HuRu-hARa | Chinese Square Dancers | The Seen and Unseen | Torch the Place | Metal This is the first of a two-part …
By Shahril Salleh (1,357 words, 4-minute read) Doyen. Icon. Self-professed Dragon Lady. These are some of the facets of Margaret Leng Tan, Singapore’s Cultural Medallion award recipient in 2015. Margaret is a treasured Singaporean musician and performance artist who is currently based in New York. As a champion of new music, especially that of John …
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by By Nabilah Said (730 words, 6-minute read) You go into a circus performance with certain expectations. You want the big shebang, the SPECTACULAR SPECTACULAR. The physical feats that no average person can do. Cirque du Soleil has come to define the hallmarks …
À Ố Làng Phố: Less trick, more treat in Vietnamese bamboo circus Read More »
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by By Carolyn Oei (638 words, 5-minute read) Note: This review may contain some minor spoilers for Dragon Ladies Don’t Weep by Margaret Leng Tan. ONE: “Music; this is where the counting belongs.” In Dragon Ladies Don’t Weep, Margaret Leng Tan – …
Dragon Ladies Don’t Weep: Brilliance Is Margaret Leng Tan Read More »
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by By Nabilah Said (708 words, 5-minute read) In Hades Fading, Eurydice has a memory problem. She can’t remember where she comes from. The books all tell her something different – her mother was a water nymph, no, a wind nymph or was …
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by By Nabilah Said (670 words, 5-minute read) I watched Are You Ready To Take The Law Into Your Own Hands by Sipat Lawin and Friends on 26 February 2020, 34 years almost to the day of the People Power Revolution, which toppled …
Are You Ready To Take The Law Into Your Own Hands: Tongue Scrapes Against Cheek Read More »
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by By Nabilah Said (800 words, 5-minute read) The first thing one sees upon entering the Fairfax Studio in Arts Centre Melbourne for Torch the Place is a huge mountain covered in cloth, and an old piano. The dutiful eldest daughter in a …
The following review is made possible through a Critical Residency programme supported by By Carolyn Oei (638 words, 4-minute read) “Embracing life means embracing every element of dualism in it. Embracing the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, life and death,” writes Kamila Andini, director of the spiritual dance-theatre, The Seen and …
The challenges of fusing and representing more than one culture while planning and executing a memorable wedding are well-known to us in real life and in fiction. Movies like My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), The Birdcage (1996) and Top End Wedding (2019) have explored the themes of love, family, loyalties, tradition and change successfully …
Tangled and tackled: Black Ties at Sydney Festival 2020 Read More »
There is a huge difference between watching a great piece of theatre with a beautiful original score, and experiencing a process that gives equal importance to all the creative aspects, including sound. Experiencing the work-in-progress presentation of 宿 (stay) was probably the first time I fully grasped this difference. Presented as part of Sydney Festival …
A sound collaboration: 宿 (stay) at Sydney Festival 2020 Read More »
ArtsEquator Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the region. Here’s a round-up of content from this week, scoured and sifted from a range of regional …
By Marcus Yee (1340 words, five-minute read) This is the second of a two-part essay on the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial running at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, from 24 November 2018 to 28 April 2019. Read Part I here. Wind Songs, Molecular Vibrations Four Winds Wind, you are a beast with four heads …
Solid are the Winds: Aeolian Encounters at The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial (Part II) Read More »
By Marcus Yee (1259 words, five-minute read) This is the first of a two-part essay on the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial running at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, from 24 November 2018 to 28 April 2019. Read Part II here. Since 1993, the Asia Pacific Triennial (APT) has been a gathering point for contemporary …
Solid are the Winds: Aeolian Encounters at The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial (Part I) Read More »
A result of a research collaboration organised by the University of Sydney’s Power Institute in partnership with the Institut Teknologi Bandung and National Gallery Singapore, Ambitious Alignments: New Histories of Southeast Asian Art, 1945-1990 is a recently published volume of ten collected essays. It is comparable to an archeological excavation, unearthing and resurfacing forgotten, if …
Book Review: “Ambitious Alignments: New Histories of Southeast Asian Art, 1945–1990” Read More »
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 …
Fifield announces $100,000 to grow cultural links with Singapore (via ArtsHub) Read More »
Presented by the National Arts Council Singapore, The Art and Consequence of Collaboration with the Australian Network for Art & Technology (ANAT) and Experimenta is a series of presentations that give an insight into the art/technology and art/science sectors in Australia, scanning the development of these practices over the past 30 years and key areas of …
By Kathy Rowland (770 words, 5 minute read) The Asian Dramaturgs’ Network, launched in April 2016 in Singapore by dance dramaturg Lim How Ngean, has quickly extended its regional footprint this year with meetings in Yokohama and Australia. Its Satellite Symposium in Adelaide, presented by Centre 42, brought Australian and Asian cultural practitioners into the same …
Asian Dramaturgs’ Network in Adelaide: Getting Messy to Make Sense Read More »
In 2015 Singapore celebrated ‘SG50’, the city-state’s golden jubilee, marking 50 years of independence as a sovereign nation. Commissioned by the Singapore International Festival of Arts to respond to that year’s theme of ‘Post-Empires’, W!ld Rice created Hotel, a sprawling, four-and-a-half-hour-long play in two parts intended to subvert the nationalistic triumphalism of the jubilee’s official …
W!ld Rice’s “Hotel” at Adelaide’s OzAsia Festival Read More »
By Chan Sze-Wei (920 words, 8-minute read) Given that the publicity synopsis to Dries Verhoeven’s video installation pretty much tells all, I’m surprised by how excited I am by the time I’m finally summoned to enter the heavy white door. A lot of the theatricality in my experience of Guilty Landscapes III is in the anticipation …
By Felipe Cervera (1400 words, 10-minute read) It is as if Mozart were able to capture what death sounds like, in those moments when people run around trying to assert themselves in the face of a body that has just ceased to breathe. Personally, it takes just a few notes of his Requiem for me …
“And So You See…”: The Irrational is in the Eye of the Beholder Read More »
