BIPAM 2021: Delight, despair, dialogue and the despot
By Nabilah Said (1,800 words, 6-minute read) I’ve never actually attended the Bangkok International Performing Arts Meeting (BIPAM). This year, the pandemic allowed me to, as BIPAM offered a five-day digital programme full of showcases, talks and other activities. It…
Can the arts solve community issues in the region? The SEA*5 think so.
Can the creative society in Southeast Asia support each other in finding solutions to problems in our communities, powered by compassion and empathy? That’s one of the questions at the heart of the existence of Project SEA*5. The group comprises…
Meeting Point 2021: The cultural worker in a time of social change
By Wennie Yang (2,000 words, 8-minute read) Laptop fully charged, professional Zoom background selected – Meeting Point 2021 organised by Mekong Cultural Hub and its partners took place virtually between 20 to 22 May 2021. Artists, cultural intermediaries, academics, and…
#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar – and how you can help
By ArtsEquator In the early hours of Monday, 1 February 2021, the leaders of Myanmar’s elected civilian government were seized and detained in a military coup d’état. Over the past 81 days, the Burmese Armed Forces (also known as the…
Transcultural Lullabies: Rohingya and Malay folksongs
Rohingya poet Mayyu Ali and Malaysian artist Sharon Chin collaborate in this meaningful project that looks at Rohingya and Malay lullabies and folksongs. The pairings of songs, which are narrated and sung orally, are further unified with a patterned artwork…
ArtsEquator, Deadline Now
by Kathy Rowland ArtsEquator sometimes feels like a mythical creature. Looking back over the past 4 years, it takes the shape of a unicorn, a joyful improbability. With Covid-19, it can weigh like an albatross, cash flow statements instead of…
Burning Questions: Traditional Arts: The Forgotten COVID Casualty?
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…
20 Arts and Cultural Festivals to Visit in Southeast Asia in 2020
It’s the year 2020 and the world is rife with new Instagram filters, hashtag 2020vision (yes, we get it) and the perennial “new year, new me” declarations. Well, if you’ve got travelling and #jetsetter on your new year’s resolution list,…
Asian Arts Media Roundtable 2019: When Asian Critics Meet
By Akanksha Raja and Ke Weiliang (1,444 words, 6-minute read) The inaugural Asian Arts Media Roundtable (AAMR) took place between 24 to 25 May 2019 at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. Organised by ArtsEquator, the two-day gathering of over…
Grace Baey’s Portraits of Yangon’s Trans Population (via Coconuts Yangon)
Some photographers are able to capture the most delicate moments deftly. With her project Living Choices, Singapore-based shooter Grace Baey showed her ability to do just that. Baey spent one month in Yangon taking pictures of the city’s trans population for the…
“8888 Uprising”: Thirty Years Later
By Sharaad Kuttan (650 words, four-minute read) Despite the flash of contemporary retail – some garish, some tasteful – Yangon’s old-world charms prevail. Today, walking past the crumbling moss-covered walls that advertise the pleasures of late 20th century globalisation –…
MervEspina and the Green Papaya Art Projects (via The Myanmar Times)
With the support of Japan Foundation and collaboration of Myanm/Art, MervEspina, artist and researcher from Philippines talked about Green Papaya Art Projects whose essence can be rendered as ‘never ripe, never rotten’. The talk was moderated by Aung Myat Htay,…
U Maung Maung’s blast from the past (via The Myanmar Times)
To some people, these maybe nothing more than trash, some useless pieces of equipment from a forgotten past, but to others these are rare gems that brought back some bittersweet memories from not so long ago, when strife of all…
Veteran Artists Team Up with Younger Generation at ‘Wild Eye’ Exhibition (via The Irrawady)
YANGON — Veteran modernists and younger generations have teamed up to exhibit their works together in Yangon. Twenty-seven modernists are displaying more than 50 works at “Wild Eye” contemporary art exhibition at OK Art Gallery in Aung San Stadium. Their…
Myanmar’s artists reflect on seventy years of history in seminal exhibition (via Frontier Myanmar)
ARTIST HTEIN Lin climbs onto a chair. “Can I get up here? Then people can see me,” he says to the assembled crowd. “That’s a technique I learned in 1988.” He is in the south wing of Yangon’s Secretariat where,…
Art Show Delves Into the Surreal (via The Irrawady)
YANGON — For those tired of landscapes and portraits, an ongoing exhibition in Yangon is showcasing something a little more uncanny. “Supernatural” features the creative works of five surrealists exploring other aspects of human life. Surrealism is not new to…
Once-thriving Myanmar cinema readies for new wave (via Nikkei Asian Review)
YANGON — Change is afoot in Myanmar’s now moribund movie industry. Just over two decades ago, the country’s current de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi was imprisoned by all-powerful military generals and Western sanctions made it nearly impossible to import…
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…
The Journey of the Blood Jade (via Myanmar Times)
A photo exhibition takes the viewer behind the curtain of Myanmar’s jade industry Myanmar jade is one of the most beautiful in the world. It is also one of the bloodiest. One of the best mines is in the war-torn Kachin…
K-paint in Myanmar: Four Korean artists on show at Yangon Gallery (via Myanmar Times)
Famous Korean artist Park Jin Woo and three other Korean artists (Chong Eun Mi, Nam Yeo Joo and Kwon Young Sil) held a 3-day exhibition, from 20 to 23 May. They showed their amazing art works at The Yangon Gallery….
Artist strives to develop Myanmar art scene (via The Irrawady)
Whenever he returns from a foreign country, Khin Zaw Latt feels unwell with frustration. He feels sick, but not because of Zika or SARS, but at the drought of art in his country. Art museums and communities in countries like…
Mayfly Docus: “Die Tomorrow” and “14 Apples” at SIFA’s “Singular Screens”
By Dan Koh (1,715 words, 15-minute read) At this year’s Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA), the two films from Southeast Asia are documentaries, or hybrid-documentaries—just like last year’s three, curiously. Despite the glaring gaps that remain in the funding,…
Myanmar Artists’ Works Tackling Identity, Displacement on Show in Chiang Mai (via The Irrawady)
CHIANG MAI, Thailand – Works by 18 established and emerging artists from Southeast Asia offering their personal experiences of global migration, notions of identity and ongoing humanitarian crises in Myanmar are on currently on display in a group exhibition in…
North Dagon: A hub of artistic creation, who knew? (via Myanmar Times)
Much like meeting your idols, seeing your favourite artists’place of work is fraught with danger. What if you discover that the birthplace of their artistic creations looks more like what you’d find in an Ikea catalogue rather than the paint splattered…
‘I just tried to prove to myself that I could do it’: Reflections on International Women’s Day (via Frontier Myanmar)
Sandar Khine, 46, is one of the few women artists in Myanmar who paint nudes, a courageous choice in a country where some equate images of a naked human body with pornography. A member of the Myanmar Fine Arts Collective…
Evolution of Myanmar Art On Display in New Exhibit at National Museum (via The Irrawady)
You can’t go to the Myanmar Art Museum to study the evolution of Myanmar art because there is no such thing as an art museum in Myanmar. Some even fail to notice that there is an art booth at the…
Back to the future with Yangon Time Machine
By Will Low (780 words, four-minute read) When I meet someone newly arrived in Myanmar, we usually end up talking about the experience of living in its busiest and largest city, Yangon. They’ll ask how long I’ve been here: five…
Myanmar artist wins at 2017 American Arts Awards
“U HLA TUN, a Myanmar fine artist, ranked first in Category 36 of 2017 American Arts Awards among international artists from more than 50 countries, including some ASEAN member countries, Asian countries and western states. Under the title of “Landscape…
Myanmar art exposed
“After a controversy over terminology and a year’s preparation, the ambitious Yangon Art Expo has helped to create greater international interest in contemporary Myanmar art. U Aung Min of Yangon’s Magic Art Gallery declared last week’s Yangon Art Expo the…
Podcast 18: Forum Theatre in Myanmar; SDEA Theatre Arts Conference
Duration: 16 min The SDEA (Singapore Drama Educators Association) Theatre Arts Conference took place at Goodman Arts Centre from 30 June to 1 July 2017. SDEA‘s mission is to advance the profession of the drama/theatre educator and advocating for the…