“Beautiful Water”: Intercultural Theatre Made in Threes
By Ken Takiguchi (1,229 words, 6-minute read) As I enter the auditorium of Kirari Fujimi, a public theatre located about one hour away from the centre of Tokyo, I find myself in the waters of somewhere in Asia. The audience…
Podcast 56: Reflections on the 8th World Summit On Arts And Culture, Malaysia
Duration: 39 min The 8th World Summit On Arts And Culture took place 11 – 14 March 2019 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Kathy Rowland, Sunitha Janamohanan, Ann Lee and Kai Brennert reflect on the event, in relation to issues of…
“Gold Rain and Hailstones”: There and Back Again
By Carmen Nge (1593 words, six-minute read) It was a Wednesday night and DPAC was packed. It’s just as well the staging of Gold Rain and Hailstones experienced a 10-minute delay because theatregoers kept streaming in well past 8:30 PM….
Podcast 52: Interview with Joseph Gonzales
Duration: 34 min In the first dance podcast of 2019, host Amin Farid chats with Professor Joseph Gonzales of the Dance faculty at Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, on his career journey from being a performer to the founder…
ArtsEquator’s Top 10 Picks at the Performing Arts Meeting 2019
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…
Eleven New Elements from the Asia-Pacific Region Inscribed on the List of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage
Meeting in Mauritius until 1 December, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage inscribed eleven elements from the Asia-Pacific region on the Lists of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. Among them, two elements have been added to…
“One Two Jaga”: The New Bravery of Malaysian Cinema
By Daniyal Kadir (1330 words, five-minute read) Click here to read this article in Malay. Klik di sini untuk baca rencana ini dalam Bahasa Melayu. It is rare to see social or political criticism delivered boldly and directly in Malaysian films. Even critical commentary, cloaked…
Joe Sidek: “I’ve never felt more strong”
By Kathy Rowland (910 words, five-minute read) Joe Sidek will not be cowed. “Everyone thinks I’m down and depressed. I’m fine!” It’s been a challenging year for the founder of the George Town Festival. In the foreground: the removal and…
Padmini Chettur’s “Varnam” and Pichet Klunchun’s “I Am A Demon”: An Instructive Contrast
By Bilqis Hijjas (975 words, four-minute read) If you have ever felt that classical Indian dance is too melodramatic – if you have ever rolled your eyes at a dancer’s fervid abhinaya, or a poem narrator’s extravagant diction – or…
“The Misinterpreted Futures of George Town 2068”: Missing Futures
By Akanksha Raja (960 words, four-minute read) Prior to stepping into the mystifying world of The Misinterpreted Futures of George Town 2068, I was curious and fascinated by that science-fictioney title, coupled with the exciting premise of a performance with…
AExGTF Chats: Charlie Lim and .gif in George Town
On the closing weekend of the George Town Festival, ArtsEquator interviewed Singaporean musician Charlie Lim and indie-electronic music duo .gif who were in Penang to perform at China House, along with other Singaporean musical acts including Tabitha Nauser and Yung…
“7Voices 2.0” by Yayasan Chow Kit and Dramalab at George Town Festival 2018
By Akanksha Raja (830 words, four minute read) Before entering the performance space on the first floor lobby of The Whiteaways Arcade where 7Voices 2.0 takes place, my friend Denise and I are approached by two young “inspectors” demanding documentary…
Getting schooled on the arts (via The Star)
From surprise visits to schools, replacing white shoes with black, and referencing the Finnish education system as a possible one to emulate, the new Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik has made waves with his fresh approach. Expectations are running high…
Book Review: “Writing the Modern: Selected Texts on Art & Art History in Singapore, Malaysia & Southeast Asia”
By Carmen Nge (1300 words, five-minute read) In the vast firmament of Singaporean-Malaysian art history, no star illuminates as radiantly as T.K. Sabapathy. An art historian by training, Sabapathy initially began his career in the early 1970s by reviewing art…
Book Review: “Excavations, Interrogations, Krishen Jit & Contemporary Malaysian Theatre”
By Felipe Cervera (1600 words, eight-minute read) Excavations, Interrogations, Krishen Jit & Contemporary Malaysian Theatre, edited by Charlene Rajendran, Ken Takiguchi and Carmen Nge, is a long overdue resource that sheds light on important aspects of the cultural, artistic, and…
“One Two Jaga”: Keberanian Baharu Sinema Malaysia
Oleh Daniyal Kadir (1260 patah kata, 5-miinit bacaan) Penyampaian kritikan sosial atau politik dalam filem-filem Malaysia jarang berlaku melalui suasana yang berani dan mendatangkan ghairah. Malah mengkritik melalui karya secara berdepan seperti sukar untuk dilakukan. Terdapat banyak hal yang menyumbang…
Johor Arts Festival 2018: Top 8 Picks
The 15th Johor Arts Festival kicked off on 1 September, and runs until 23 September 2018. One of Malaysia’s longest-running festivals, it features a variety of performances, exhibitions, workshops, talks, and activities, ranging between the traditional and contemporary; the loud…
Ombak Potehi’s “Kisah Pulau Pinang: The Penang Story”: A Slice of Malayan History
By Akanksha Raja (620 words, four-minute read) Ombak Potehi is Ombak Ombak Art Studio’s glove puppet theatre group established in 2015, consisting of young people – all under 30 – producing and performing puppet theatre, having been trained by experts…
AExGTF Chats: Prof Tan Sooi Beng of Ombak Potehi at George Town Festival
Potehi puppet theatre is a traditional Hokkien art form brought to Southeast Asia by immigrants from southern China several centuries ago. Despite originally being performed in Hokkien, potehi came to be performed in the different languages of the region, and…
Three Short Films about Women at SeaShorts 2018, George Town
By Alfonse Chiu (1216 words, five-minute read) The SeaShorts Film Festival ran for its second edition as the official pre-festival to the annual George Town Festival from 1st to 5th August in a radical geographical shift away from the Kuala…
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…
“Between Tiny Cities (រវាងទីក្រុងតូច)”: De-cyphering Conversation
By Nah Dominic (1080 words, five-minute read) A white circle 10 metres in diameter greets us on entering the flexible performance space in Loft 29. I stand next to B-boy Erak Mith of Tiny Toones (Phnom Penh, Cambodia). He is…
AExGTF Chats: “Between Tiny Cities (រវាងទីក្រុងតូច)” at George Town Festival
Between Tiny Cities (រវាងទីក្រុងតូច), a two-hander dance performance dovetailing b-boy vocabulary with contemporary dance, was the result of a three-year cultural exchange between Tiny Toones in Cambodia and Darwin City Rockers in Australia. It was presented at George Town Festival…
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…
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (23 July – 29 July 2018)
Caravaggio Art Talk 3, at Balai Seni Negara, 25 July, 11am In conjunction with the Caravaggio Opera Omnia exhibition, art expert Sabiana Paoli will be providing audience members insights to Caravaggio’s most significant works made in Rome, Malta, Naples and Sicily….
The World Cup, The Japanese Occupation and Our Painful Inheritance
This article is republished from the Singapore International Film Festival editorial. It is part of New Waves 2018, an annual series of screenings and dialogues with regional filmmakers. For this third edition of the New Waves series, SGIFF invites participants…
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (16 – 22 July 2018)
Hua (華) Settler Imaginary in Borneo, at Malaysia Design Archive, 19 July 8pm Academic Dr Zhou Hau Liew presents ‘Preliminary Thoughts on the Hua Settler Imaginary in Borneo: Cultural Mapping, Revolutionary Communism, and the Ideas of Chineseness’. This talk rethinks…
Masalah Sastera Di Malaysia Baharu
Oleh Faisal Tehrani (1, 175 patah kata, 9-minit bacaan) Click here to read this article in English. Klik di sini untuk baca rencana ini dalam Bahasa Inggeris. Saya harus berjujur, kita ada masalah dengan sastera kita, dan saya jujur sahaja; saya tidak tahu apakah…
The Problem with Literature in New Malaysia
By Faisal Tehrani (1, 350 words, 7-minute read) Click here to read this article in Bahasa Melayu. Klik di sini untuk baca rencana ini dalam Bahasa Melayu. I have to be honest: we have a problem with our literature, and frankly, I…
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (9 – 15 July 2018)
Sesi Diskusi Buku KAOS NOL, Lit Books, 11 July 7pm This book club meets every two weeks to discuss books that focus on theatre and the performing arts. This time, the group will be examining In Praise of Shadows (1933)…