By Joel Tan Welcome back to See What See! It’s our monthly round-up of interesting stuff by Singapore and regional makers that you can stream right here on the Internet. In this edition, I thought I’d pay a little attention to film, TV, and shorts with a genre fiction flavour, so I went around sniffing …
As the five women onstage came silently together in a halt, spot lit and wrapped once more in the tenun textile they had first appeared in, there was an initial hush. Ironically, for all the dynamism of the movements and formations we had just witnessed, it was their voices that somehow continued to echo in …
Eko Supriyanto’s “IBUIBU BELU”: Uncomfortable Questions Read More »
By Katrina Stuart Santiago (936 words, 6-minute read) The past as a point of reference for contemporary cultural work is not new, and neither is the need to rethink it, reconsider it, or respond to it. Anyone who works in culture after all is inextricably bound to tradition, and to some extent, all major cultural …
By Amitha Amranand (1,350 words, 5-minute read) Thai dancer-choreographer Thanapol Virulhakul is certainly not the first artist to wonder whether art could become more of a part of our daily life nor to attempt through his art to make it more so. It is difficult to see that attempt in The Retreat, or to even …
Thanapol Virulhakul’s “The Retreat”: Dance, Uncontained Read More »
The Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama will focus on dance and physical expression this year. Since it was established as the Tokyo Performing Arts Market in 1995, the annual event has never quite stopped moving – including a move to Yokohama in 2011 – and has come to be known for its consistent spirit of …
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 critique of contemporary family values and neo-liberal queer politics. But, as this last piece of text scrolls off the screen, it also …
The disturbing cruelty of Terre Thaemlitz’s “Deproduction” Read More »
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, it was staged as an “anti-live AV performance”, as Thaemlitz combined the album’s textual, audio …
Disturbing behaviour: “Deproduction” by Terre Thaemlitz Read More »
By Patricia Tobin ( 700 words, 5-minute read) “GE14 will be the arts festival to outdo all arts festivals,” said performer-politician Fahmi Fadzil. He is referring to the live spectacle: from theatre productions to political speeches, performativity is a constant. All the world’s a stage, as the production of GE14 shows, from the car parks …
Fahmi Fadzil’s “GE14”: The sound and fury signifying everything Read More »
Below is a summary of Critics Live! for Displaced Persons’ Welcome Dinner by Checkpoint Theatre. This took place live at The Arts House on 24 May 2019. The panelists were: Dede Pramayoza (Indonesia), Helmi Yusof (Singapore), Hiroyuki Takahashi (Japan) and Pawit Mahasarinand (Thailand). The session was moderated by ArtsEquator’s co-founder, Kathy Rowland. Kathy Rowland opened …
Critics Live: A Post-Show Response to Displaced Persons’ Welcome Dinner Read More »
Established in 1995, the Tokyo Performing Arts Market (TPAM) was created to be a platform to network Japanese artists with producers and funders. 24 years later, TPAM has expanded in scope and purpose, to include live performance, panel discussions and symposiums. In 2011 it moved to the City of Yokohama, and was renamed the Performing …
ArtsEquator’s Top 10 Picks at the Performing Arts Meeting 2019 Read More »
By Patricia Tobin (500 words, 5-minute read) A dark traditional Japanese Buddhist altar, or butsudan, stands tall onstage. Engraved gold hinges line the thick borders and towering, half-folded black doors, akin to an oriental treasure chest. Upon the tolling of a bell, two old women slowly push open the butsudan doors, inviting us into the …
By Isaac Lim (516 words, 5-minute read) A supersized Butsudan (Buddhist altar) frames the stage, flanked by two old peasants who open the panels to indicate the commencement of a ritual. Within is 16th century post-civil war Japan, replete with samurais and ninjas. Majestic silkscreen doors open and close to reveal different scenes. This is …
Recently I caught a round of theatrical experimentations by Southeast Asian and Japanese directors in Tokyo. Called One Table Two Chairs Meeting 2017, it was the second of a 3-year series at the Za-Koenji Theatre. Taking part were Prumsodun Ok (Cambodia), Kamei Juntaro (Japan), Fasyali Fadzly (Malaysia), Chey Chankethya (Cambodia) and Liu Xiaoyi (Singapore). One …
What happens when you are an artist who has been given, say, five days, to make and present a new work for a site-specific event in a place that you have never seen before, in Japan? You will be required to install your work anew each day, between 3 and 6.30pm. When it “starts to …
Tikam-Tikam Japan: chi too’s conceptual balloons in Sapporo Read More »
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 »
Pichet Klunchun was invited to create an outdoor performance at Minami Ikebukuro Park, a popular hang-out place for families and young people in Tokyo, by the Festival Tokyo 2017. It was an ‘odd’ commission given that Pichet Klunchun is known internationally, as a choreographer and dancer, for his deconstruction of classical Thai dance, the khon, …
Tikam-Tikam Japan: Site-Specific Monkeys by Pichet Klunchun Read More »
The Necessary Stage, in collaboration with HANCHU-YUEI, one of Tokyo’s most innovative theatre companies, brings us a work that explores the digital remains of life after death in another thought provoking work, “Sanctuary” opening 1 November 2017. Acclaimed playwright Leow Puay Tin interviews the production’s dramaturg, Ken Takiguchi about being the man in the middle. Ken …
The “SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now” exhibition in Tokyo has collected so much material that it could be split into two substantial halves, one at the Mori Art Museum and the other at The National Art Center, Tokyo. It is a showcase of a profusion of artworks through a sampling of important …
“SUNSHOWER”: Encounters with Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia Read More »
“After a successful season of performances at the Heritage Celebrations, George Town Festival and Butterworth Fringe Festival in Penang, Ombak Potehi is set to perform in Tokyo from November 2 to 8, 2017. An outreach program of Ombak-Ombak ARTStudio, Ombak Potehi comprises young artists who have learned the art form from the masters and have …
The performance event R.I.P. Tokyo began life as a commemoration for a cat which died at the grand age of 22, five years ago. The cat belonged to director Shirotama Hitsujiya who helms the Yubiwa Hotel theatre company. For three years, she has marked the occasion by hosting a soup dinner party for friends at …
By Eva Wong Nava (1390 words, 14-minute read) Pumpkins, phalli, polka dots, stainless steel balls. These are the iconographies of YAYOI KUSAMA (b. 1929), the influential Japanese artist, who is equally famous for her commission by Louis Vuitton to imprint her [in]famous dots on their emblematic handbags and clothing line. Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition at the …
YAYOI KUSAMA: Life is the Heart of the Rainbow, National Gallery Singapore Read More »
By Yen Nie Yong (870 words, 10-minute read) Zanele Muholi, recipient of the 2016 International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award for Documentaries and Photojournalism, had her piercing gaze fixed on one of Kyoto’s most well-known backstreets recently. She was looking at the cherry blossom trees that had shed all its pinkness and had turned …
Queer. Black. African. Woman: Zanele Muholi at Forum Kyoto Read More »
“Twenty-five years ago I joined a team from the Japan Foundation on a tour of Isan to meet and talk to molam artists, as part of a project on Lao music in the region. We met up with the then-president of the Molam Association, National Artist Kane Dalao, and his two female molam partners, Boonpeng …
The music should be familiar to most in the audience—pop tunes known the world over—but not so for the dance, “Re/Play Dance Edit,” which was choreographed over the past week by Cambodian and Japanese dancers. As the artists perform in Phnom Penh on Friday and Saturday, they will gracefully move across the stage without interacting …
Championing Diversity, Dancers Move to Their Own Stories [Cambodia] Read More »
By Kathy Rowland (529 words, 5 minute read) Solo Rites: Seven Breaths by Jen Shyu, a highly acclaimed experimental jazz vocalist from the US, was staged at the Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama on 14 February 2017. Shyu, who is of East Timor-Taiwanese ancestry, has spent years conducting research and learning the traditional musical and …
Solo Rites: Asian Degustation Menu Causes Indigestion Read More »
In many of Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s films, the membrane that separates dream from reality is a porous one. In Syndromes And A Century, snatches of dialogue are repeated, with slight variations, as if to recreate the sensation of déjà vu. In Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, a long lost son returns …
Warming Up to Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s ‘Fever Room’ Read More »
‘The Cave’, a converted bar and restaurant that is the venue for the performance of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, is small. Audiences sit on three sides, around five persons abreast, ever mindful that to stretch their legs would be to trespass into the performance area. How does one perform Ghosts in such a space, with its …
Review: Theatre Company shelf’s “GHOSTS-COMPOSITION/IBSEN” Read More »
By Kathy Rowland (1484 words, 15-minute read) The Tokyo Performing Arts Market (TPAM) was established in 1995. In 2011, TPAM moved to the City of Yokohama, re-branding as the Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama. The shift of location also signalled a realignment, from showcase to co-presenting, with a specific focus on Asia. Over the past …
Yokohama’s Creative City: Interview with Kozue Nakayama Read More »
Malaysian-Hong Kong action thriller “Mrs K” has been set as the opening film of the Osaka Asian Film Festival. The festival, which runs March 3-12, will close with the world premiere of teen music drama “Parks” by Osaka-born director Seta Natsuki. Tags: Malaysian Film
… anyone who gained the respect and friendship of the late Benedict Anderson, author of the immensely important critique of nationalism “Imagined Communities,” is entitled to as much cake as they want. The creative invention and emotional candor of Weerasethakul’s exhibition “Ghosts in the Darkness” at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum sucker-punched me after my …
