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…
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (2–8 July 2018)
Damansara International Arts Festival (DIAF), DPAC, 3–15 July In conjunction with the fifth anniversary of performing arts space DPAC, DIAF features two weeks of music, puppetry, dance, theatre and more. Many shows feature international performers. I recommend Malaysia’s Adab Berguru…
George Town marks UNESCO anniversary amid debate (via Nikkei Asian Review)
GEORGE TOWN, Malaysia — On any given weekend, a 15-meter-long queue of international tourists materializes at the upper corner of Armenian Street, an atmospheric road packed with tourist shops and cafes at the heart of George Town, capital of Malaysia’s…
27 Artists Grapple with the Fractious Politics of Malaysia (via Hyperallergic)
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Petani Semasa is a significant exhibition on contemporary art about the Patani region of Southern Thailand, that privileges local artists. Currently on display at the Ilham gallery in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the works are deeply complicated, and largely unsettling. Featuring 27 artists, the show never…
Sarawak’s second Rainforest Fringe Festival aims to put indigenous traditions on the map (via South China Morning Post)
The Rainforest Fringe Festival started in 2017 to spotlight Sawarak’s distinct jungle heritage. The second edition this year (July 6 to 15) promises to unveil an even wider spectrum of both traditional and contemporary expressions. Presented in the heart of…
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (25 June – 1 July 2018)
Malam Sayu Berpuisi, at klpac, 27 June, 8:30pm A night performance held outdoors on klpac’s grounds, by the banyan tree. Poets will be accompanied with improvised music by duo Feel Tu Penting. Poets for the night feature a mix of…
Rainforest Fringe Festival 2018: Top 8 Picks
By Nur Athirah Abdullah The Rainforest Fringe Festival 2018 (RFF 2018) is less than a month away! Not to be mistaken for the Rainforest World Music Festival, one of the region’s best world music festivals, the Fringe is a cool…
Big Brother is watching you: the exhibition aiming to tackle surveillance and censorship (via SEA Globe)
Surveillance and censorship are becoming part and parcel of daily life around the world, and yet many citizens seem content to turn a blind eye to it. A new exhibition at Wei-Ling Gallery in Kuala Lumpur called Seen is addressing that issue….
ILHAM Gallery is a trailblazer in the Malaysian art scene (via Luxuo)
ILHAM Gallery sits like a secret jewel box in the black-ice exterior of Menara ILHAM, where it has played host to celebrated artists and conceptual experimenters since it opened its doors in August 2015. Today, it is working at the…
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (18 – 24 June 2018)
Live Fact Presents: Protomartyr, at Live Fact, 20 June, 8pm American rock band Protomartyr is performing in Live Fact this Wednesday. The band features Joe Casey on vocals, Greg Ahee on guitar, Alex Leonard on drums and Scott Davidson on…
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (11 – 17 June 2018)
Feedback Open Mic: feat Jumero & Josiah Tay, at The Bee, 12 June, 8pm Jumero’s hippie and happy beach music is always a great choice for a pick-me-up. They’ll be featured alongside Josiah Tay, who does covers of songs you…
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (4–10 June 2018)
Zalila Lee at Merdekarya, 6 June, 9pm Singer-songwriter Zalila Lee returns to Merdekarya. This performer is a versatile talent, but for her solo performances, you can generally expect folk-blues with a boom voice and soul cutting lyrics. The show starts…
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…
Malaysian Band To Perform At Europe’s Biggest Electronic Music Fest! (via Eksentrika)
Seven-piece band The Venopian Solitude is set to become the first Malaysian band ever to perform at Sónar! For those who’re in the dark, Sónar is a three-day electronic and advanced music festival which was started in Barcelona, Spain in 1994…
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (21 – 27 May 2018)
By Lainie Yeoh NINE Theatre Festival, at Sunway University Rooftop Theatre, 21 & 22 May The students from the Diploma in Performing Arts 2016 of Sunway University offer a wide selection of staged performances, readings, and site-specific installations in this…
Making Our Own Centres (Of) Ourselves: Latiff Mohidin’s “Pago Pago (1960-1969)”
By Nabilah Said (2,220 words, 11-minute read) Had Malaysian artist-poet Latiff Mohidin been French, he might perhaps strongly identify with the idea of the flâneur. Coined by French poet Charles Baudelaire, the French word for someone who strolls in the…
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (14 May – 20 May 2018)
By Lainie Yeoh Majlis Himpunan Warga Seni PH (Pakatan Harapan), Auditorium MATIC, 15 May 3pm Despite the name (Assembly of Artists PH), this is not officially sanctioned by Pakatan Harapan, nor does it seem to be organised by Pakatan Harapan…
How one artist is exploring his roots through vibrant, surreal artworks (via SEA Globe)
Hasanul Isyraf Idris is a Malaysian artist who works with a variety of different materials to present his often intricate and surreal ideas, inspired by his home country’s colourful history. Hasanul Isyraf Idris’s fourth solo feature with Richard Koh Fine…
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,…
“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…
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (30 April – 6 May 2018)
By Lainie Yeoh If Walls Could Talk at The Gaslight KL, 8pm 30 April Fondly known as Walls, this poetry open mic show is a must-try event in KL. Many wonderful poetry acts have been discovered in Walls, and the energy…
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…
Of Moral Panic and 30 Hours of Non-Stop Rock: The Malaysian Woodstock of July 1972 (via The Wknd)
1969’s Woodstock is probably one of the most iconic and influential music festivals to ever take place, with its 32 acts and 400,000 attendees making it not just the zenith of the whole counterculture movement that was such a big part of 1960s…
This Duo Came Up With A Solution For M’sians Who Like Movies But Hate People (via Vulcan Post)
There’s no denying that at some point, all of us have dreamed of having an entire cinema all to ourselves, along with the freedom to scream, shout and blabber all we want without anyone telling us to tone it down….
Book Review: “Retrospective: A Historiographical Aesthetic in Contemporary Singapore and Malaysia” by June Yap
By Loo Zihan (1670 words, 15-minute read) How does contemporary art in Singapore and Malaysia reflect an alternative to the dominant narrative of history? June Yap’s book produces a concept of ‘Malayan’ history from the 1950s till 2010s through a…
Writing the Reformasi: Bernice Chauly’s “Once We Were There”
By Sharmilla Ganesan (1019 words, 9-minute read) It is unlikely that, while writing her novel Once We Were There, Bernice Chauly foresaw the events currently taking place in Malaysia’s political landscape. Yet, the timing of the book’s publication now, set…
Celebrating Indonesian Modern Art: the Painting Collection of the Presidential Palace of the Republic of Indonesia – Senandang Ibu Pertiwi
“The 2016 inaugural presentation of the Painting Collection of the Presidential Palace of the Republic of Indonesia, 17/71, Goresan Juang Kemerdekaan (The Brushstrokes of the Independence Struggle), 2-30 August at the National Gallery of Indonesia, Jakarta, highlighted the relevance of art and culture to…
“Shuttle Life 《分贝人生》”: Grief and Powerlessness in Modern Malaysia
By Sherlyn Goh Xue Ting (1100 words, 8-minute read) Bold and unrelenting, Shuttle Life 《分贝人生》is an emotionally-charged social drama about Malaysia’s urban poor, offering a poignant insight into privilege and powerlessness in modern Kuala Lumpur. Featuring strong performances and gritty…
Faisal Tehrani: From Poster Boy to Pariah
Since he broke into the literary scene in his teens, Malaysian writer and academic, Dr Faizal Musa, better know by his pen name, Faisal Tehrani, has written several best selling and critically acclaimed novels and short stories. His articles on…
![Artists must challenge censorship [Malaysia]](https://artsequator.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/RADAR_Mysia_raja_ahmad_kl_biennale_20171126_-455x250.jpg)
Artists must challenge censorship [Malaysia]
“Artists in Malaysia must speak out and challenge any effort by the authorities to control and dictate the direction of their work, said arts activist Raja Ahmad Aminullah. Raja Ahmad said the recent seizure of works during the Biennale Kuala…