“Neatly stashed away in an HDB flat somewhere in the western part of Singapore are a folded black robe, newspaper cuttings, tiles with splashes of red dye, and strands of pubic hair. These are all that remains of Josef Ng’s Brother Cane, one of the most controversial performances in Singapore’s contemporary art history. “Yes, everything […]
‘Brother Cane is part of me’: Josef Ng [Singapore] Read More »
“Ahead of Museum MACAN’s (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara) slated opening in November 2017, we sat down with Aaron Seeto, director of the museum, to find out what’s planned for Indonesia’s first museum dedicated entirely to international modern and contemporary art. MACAN will officially be launching later this year, in November, and
Aaron Seeto and the Importance of Art Education [Indonesia] Read More »
“Kathy Foley, curator of Malay Theatre: Intangible Cultural Heritage and Islam, boasts decades of experience studying the art and theater of Indonesia and Southeast Asia. A trained performer in the art of wayang, traditional Indonesian mask and puppetry, Foley holds the distinction of being one of the first non-Indonesians to be invited to the prestigious
Prayer, Puppetry, and Politics: The World of Malay Performance Art [SEA] Read More »
By Philip Jablon (650 words, 7-minute read) Over the past 20 or so years, Thailand’s movie exhibition industry – that is, the collection of businesses and activities involved in the commercial showing of films – has experienced sweeping change on multiple levels. The adoption of new technologies working in tandem with changes in movie consumption
Thailand’s Last Movie Billboard Painters Read More »
There is no magic wand that can help the cultural institutions to work smoothly and force the audience to flock to theatres with just one touch. The cultural sector of Vietnam needs decades to mature and develop. The development of a country is measured not only by the number of luxury cars, the skyscrapers, shopping
The cultural sector and the 4Ps [Vietnam] Read More »
By Akanksha Raja (870 words, 8-minute read) Every Brilliant Thing is a (primarily) one-person monologue of an unnamed narrator (Andrew Marko) coming to terms with his mother’s depression and suicidal tendencies. His effort to reconcile with his mother’s instability takes the form of a numbered list devised at the age of 6 – after her
Review of “Every Brilliant Thing” by Bhumi Collective Read More »
By Yue Jie (870 words, 7-minute read) Spoiler alert! If you’ve not watched the movie yet, go see it before reading on. Few films deal with animals as a central character, and even fewer have an elephant as its protagonist. In Pop Aye, the feature debut of Singaporean film director Kirsten Tan, an elephant called
Review of “POP AYE”: A Soul Journey Read More »
“At the Malasimbo music and arts festival, there are 5,000 people of about 30 different nationalities. There are Europeans, Americans, Canadians, Japanese, among many others, and like them, I am a foreigner here. I am Filipino yet I do not belong to the community of Puerto Galera nor have I been to the other municipalities
The music festival that wants you to care about cultural preservation [Philippines] Read More »
CHAOS MEMO YELLOWING, directed by Chan Tze-Woon, 4 MAY, 7:30pm, National Museum of Singapore In 2014, an umbrella movement took place in Hong Kong, where young people led the ups and downs of the movement, the occupation of streets by civilians, and the fight against democracy in the way of civil disobedience. “Where there is a
1 – 7 May 2017: Singapore Read More »
Top Picks in Jakarta, Bandung and Yogyakarta from 1 – 7 May 2017 JAKARTA Unit Produksi Berita, Now – 17 May 2017, Dia.lo.gue artspace, Jakarta In this exhibition, Nindito Adipurnomo aims to return to the subjective old way of appreciating arts. The process involved 10 friends of Dia.lo.gue with various professional backgrounds. Nindito
1 – 7 May 2017: Indonesia Read More »
“When I heard Phnom Penh wasn’t a walking city, I bought a good pair of shoes. The evidence on my feet at the day’s end—after dodging motorbikes, piles of trash, street meat smoke, tuktuk offers—was par for the course. The joy of moving at my own pace offset the challenges, but could not have prepared
Phnom Penh’s White Building [Cambodia] Read More »
“From storytelling to stage plays, feature films to fusion music, the works of Singapore’s Indian artists are taking a multi-faceted diaspora story to global audiences. Sixty years after she left India, Mrs Santha Bhaskar travelled back to her Motherland in 2015 to choreograph a dance commissioned by the Singapore International Festival of Arts. As part
An Indian Renaissance [Singapore] Read More »
“Chiang Mai archivist and musician Victoria Vorreiter published a book on tribal music, Songs Of Memory: Traditional Music Of The Golden Triangle, in 2009. Since then she has been busy travelling, researching and recording music from the tribal peoples of the mountains, and for the past six years her focus has been on Hmong music,
Sounds of the Hmong [Thailand] Read More »
By Chan Sze-Wei (1150 words, 10-minute read) This was one of those rare occasions where I realise that I’m watching an important work of art. A discovery, a risk, a breakthrough, that will influence my aesthetic and many others’ for years to come. I unfortunately did not see Pallavi and Space, the 2016 first instalment
“Pallavi in Time” by CHOWK: Seductive Virtuosity Read More »
“If you’ve ever taken a class on Philippine history, you’d know about the Battle of Manila — but perhaps not well enough. While you might picture a day of fighting that led to the liberation of Manila in World War II, in truth, the battle lasted the duration of February 3, 1945 to March 3,
Remembering the brutal battle that changed Manila forever [Philippines] Read More »
Recently, I caught Loo Zihan’s second iteration of With/Out at Esplanade Studio Theatre. Zihan’s work is an artistic reconstruction and reimagining of The Necessary Stage’s 1999 play, Completely With/Out Character, based on the life of Paddy Chew, the first Singaporean to go public with his HIV status. Completely With/Out Character is a deeply significant work
Completely With: Remembering Paddy Chew, Reflecting on Loo Zihan Read More »
“They could have been staging Shakespeare. Instead, this year’s batch of theater students from the Philippine High School for the Arts, aged 12 to 18, take on the difficult task of protest in a post-truth world. “A lot of our students [were] troubled and they don’t know what to believe in,” explained their directing and
A new generation finds its voice in protest theater [Philippines] Read More »
Top Picks in Jakarta, Bali and Yogyakarta from 24 – 30 April 2017 JAKARTA About A Woman, 25 April 2017, 7 PM, Goethehaus, Jakarta Goethe Institut Jakarta’s Art House Cinema screens Teddy Soeriaatmadja’s film titled About A Woman. The film is a story of two strangers that are made to live under one
24 – 30 April 2017: Indonesia Read More »
Of Fear & Faith: An Original Showcase of Short Plays, 29-30 Apr, Haque Centre of Acting and Creativity Haque Centre of Acting and Creativity introduces their very first Devised Theatre Collaborative Showcase: Of Fear & Faith. Multiple stories intertwine to become one story of people, living and dying, tested by the implacable nature of life. It’s a
24 – 30 April 2017: Singapore Read More »
“The Japan Foundation Asia Center presents “Mode Of Liaisons” exhibition featuring paintings, sculptures, films/videos, installations and performances by nearly 20 artists at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre until July 2. Curated by Pichaya Suphavanij, the exhibition is part of “Condition Report”, a collaborative art project with curators from Japan and Southeast Asian countries with the
Calling All Curators: “Mode of Liaison” at Bangkok Art and Culture Centre [Thailand] Read More »
So, if those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach, should those who shouldn’t, study? Theatre is not practical; Theatre Studies is less so(?) Everyone knows the “practical” reasons why one should not take a theatre degree. A Bachelor’s Degree in Theatre Studies is not the easiest degree to convince your parents that it
A Useless Degree: Theatre Studies in Perspective [Singapore] Read More »
By Felipe Cervera (910 words, 9-minute read) Theatre is a memory machine. Its engines run with dialogues and recollections, fuelled by the invisible streams of thought and emotion that run in and out, through the minds and bodies of the people gathered. We enter the theatre hoping to forget, to remember, wanting it to remind
Review of Tropicana, The Musical: Memory Malfunction Read More »
By Akanksha Raja (770 words, 9-mintue read) The 2017 edition of the Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) returns with the theme “Enchantment”. It is the fourth and final edition helmed by Ong Keng Sen as Festival Director, and presents a range of artforms and interdisciplinary crossovers. It runs from June 28 to September 9,
The year was 1999, and I was an awkward little eighteen year-old virgin, still sweating my way through National Service. I’d only recently become involved in the Singapore theatre scene, and in a similar vein, I’d just begun embracing my identity as a gay man. Both decisions were fraught with danger: after all, Alvin Tan
Review of ‘With/Out’: AIDS, Archives, Activism Read More »
“The Thai Ferrari, made from woven rattan by Chiang Rai locals, will park at the Venice Biennale this year. “It can’t run, obviously,” said Anon Pairot of his rattan sports car. “The curator once remarked that somehow it was like Thailand. We build things, but we don’t really go anywhere.” The 57th Venice Biennale begins
Baby you can’t drive my car [Thailand] Read More »
“Two Vietnamese directors — Pham Ngoc Lan with the film project “Culi Never Cries” and Le Bao with “Taste” — are amongst the 16 directors that have made their way to the L’Atelier supporting programme for young filmmakers, organised by the film foundation Cinéfondation of the Cannes Film Festival. The sixteen directors whose projects have
Two Vietnamese Film Projects Gain Support from Cannes Festival [Vietnam] Read More »
“Indonesia’s foremost theatre director, the internationally acclaimed Iswadi Pratama, staged an extraordinary eight productions in 2016 There is no simple way of describing Iswadi Pratama. He claims to be a self-taught artist, yet his exceptional talents seem to suggest otherwise. Having spent most of his life bringing realities to the stage he insists that he
Iswadi Pratama, an auteur of Indonesian theatre [Indonesia] Read More »
“What do four contemporary artists from three other Southeast Asian countries have that could resonate in a country like Thailand? Turns out, a whole lot. From aesthetics, to spiritual beliefs, to societal struggles, Jim Thompson Art Center’s latest group exhibition, “People, Money, Ghosts (Movement As Metaphor)”, depicts the continual change that the region is going through,
A region in flux: “People, Money, Ghosts (Movement As Metaphor)” [Thailand] Read More »
“Queer cinema in the Philippines is going through some kind of resurgence. Although LGBTQ stories have always had a constant presence in local film — a number of iconic LGBTQ classics enjoyed mainstream success from the late 70’s to the early 90’s — the number of local pink movies released per year had dwindled dramatically.
Coming out and breaking through: The Philippine queer cinema roundtable [Philippines] Read More »
“Thailand and its neighbours join up for the 2017 edition of the Asean Puppet Festival The magic of marionettes will light up Bangkok later this week as more than 400 puppeteers from eight Asean countries put on shows guaranteed to keep spectators spellbound. Brought to Thailand at the initiative of the Culture Ministry, the Asean
Marionette marvels: ASEAN Puppet Festival 2017 [Thailand, SEA] Read More »
