Exploring Singapore Art Spaces through Art Catalogues by National Library Singapore and National Reading Movement, 20 Dec, 7pm Join Librarians Nadia Ramli and Kong Leng Foong as they explore early art spaces in Singapore through educational and state-run art institutions as well as independent arts spaces through art catalogues held by the National Library. This […]
Weekly Picks: Singapore (17 – 23 December 2018) Read More »
By Aditi Shivaramakrishnan (1170 words, five minute read) As I enter the Esplanade Theatre Studio to watch Extremities, I’m already on my guard. The plot synopsis and content advisory in my programme booklet have primed me for what’s to come, and so each move I make seems a tiny, if unconscious, exercise in vigilance. I
ITI’s “Extremities”: Routes for Escape and Redemption Read More »
It was a night of emotional rollercoasters and an audio-visual feast at Frontier Danceland’s double bill Milieu 2018. Two original works – The Whole She-Bang by Deborah Nightingale and Dimensions of Dialogue by Sascia Pellegrini – left the eyes and ears satisfied, but not quite the brain. The Whole She-Bang Hopscotch and PE class: the
Frontier Danceland’s “Milieu” 2018: Emotional Rollercoasters Read More »
Playfreely presents Invisible Bodies by Playfreely – a new music initiative by The Observatory, at the Projector, 12 – 14 December, 7:30pm Playfreely returns with Invisible Bodies — a miasmic surge of rhythms, trance and the unseen, an undertow of currents within fermented identities. Featuring a robust lineup across 3 nights of genre pushing, discipline-bending
Weekly Picks: Singapore (10 – 16 December 2018) Read More »
Dan pertengkaran ini berlaku di dalam ruang yang meyakinkan. Dengan ambiens pekat kemimpian yang mengujakan – sangat mengujakan. Malah siapa lagi yang benar-benar mampu mentafsir kontinuum idea-mimpi ini melainkan Ridhwan Saidi sendiri? Saya masih teringat-ingat – dan teruja – dengan set dan prop yang direka dan diguna dengan sangat bijak dalam memaknai drama-drama pendek tulisannya
“Teater Normcore: Stereo Genmai” dan Pengkarya yang Bertengkar dengan Idea Read More »
By Felipe Cervera (1400 words, six-minute read) Be future-ready: that seems to be one of the maxims of this country. The meaning of the adage varies. It means having strategic plans in place, contingencies identified ahead of time, having enough resources (or more than enough), educating not to cater to the job market now, but
“Southernmost”: The Politics of Nowhereness Read More »
Futurists and CEOs love using this quote attributed to ice hockey great Wayne Gretzky, who apparently said, “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been.” These words have a specific resonance in relation to the Singapore art world in the 21st Century. Is Singapore going where the future
The Future is Here. Is the Singapore Art World Ready? Read More »
Senior Marketing Executive / Marketing Executive at Intercultural Theatre Institute Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI) is looking for a creative and driven Marketing professional to join our small but dynamic team. You would be someone who has a strong passion for theatre and the arts, and would love to work in a plural and exciting environment
Open Calls and Opportunities: December 2018 (Singapore) Read More »
Island Song by The Song and Dance Players (SoDa Players), Centre 42, 7 – 9 December In Island Song, five 20- to 30-something characters navigate their lives the same way they navigate the city: sometimes confidently, sometimes hopefully, and sometimes recklessly As the characters wander in and out of each other’s lives, whatever happens, the city is
Weekly Picks: Singapore (3 – 9 December 2018) Read More »
By Naeem Kapadia (885 words, four-minute read) First there’s its scale – with its magnificent marble dome, soaring pillars and lush surrounding gardens. Then, the perfect symmetry; it can literally be folded in half both forwards and backwards. Finally, the purity of that incandescent white marble. Commissioned by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum
“Guards at the Taj”: The Bloody Brushstrokes of Beauty Read More »
By Teo Xiao Ting Click here to open the Twine in a new tab (if you’re reading this on a mobile browser, or otherwise have trouble viewing the Twine.) The Reunification of the Two Koreas by TheatreWorks was originally written in French by Joël Pommerat. Directed by Jacques Vincey, this staging ran at 72-13 from 1
Down the Fast Food Chain of Desire in “The Reunification of the Two Koreas” Read More »
By Casidhe Ng (1,160 words, six-minute read) The breaking apart of Pangaea. The parting of the Red Sea. The abolitionist movement in all its contexts. The division of Taiwan and China in 1949. The separation of Singapore from Malaysia on 9th August 1965. The erecting of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Its complete fall in
Looking at Love from Both Sides, Now in “The Reunification of the Two Koreas” Read More »
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 creatively, is difficult to do. There are many things that constrain creative freedom, not least the multiple legislations and regulations that bind the
“One Two Jaga”: The New Bravery of Malaysian Cinema Read More »
Guards at the Taj by Singapore Repertory Theatre, KC Arts Centre – Home of SRT, 14 Nov – 1 Dec 2018 A wickedly dark comedy based on a myth surrounding the Taj Mahal that “nothing so beautiful shall ever be built again”. Two long-term friends, Humayun and Babur stand guard at the Taj Mahal hours before
Weekly Picks: Singapore (26 November – 2 December 2018) Read More »
Duration: 36 min Chan Sze-Wei finds out more about the Asia Network for Dance (AND+) from one of its co-conveners Anna Chan, who was former head of Performing Arts and Dance for the West Kowloon Cultural District and current Dean of the School of Dance at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. Stream Podcast 50
Podcast 50: Anna Chan, Asia Network for Dance (AND+) Read More »
As part of ArtsEquator’s interview series profiling artistic directors across the region, we spoke with Alan Oei, AD of The Substation and co-founder and executive director of OH! Open House, on his hopes, his challenges, and how he balances different needs and roles between the two companies. How do you come up with the themes
8 Questions with Alan Oei Read More »
Charlie by Bhumi Collective, Goodman Arts Centre Music Studio, 20 Nov – 7 Dec What would you say to an innocent child who has literally never seen the world? Bhumi Collective is delighted to present the Singapore premiere of Charlie by Victoria Chen, after two successful runs at the Edinburgh Student Arts Festival and the
Weekly Picks: Singapore (19 – 25 November 2018) Read More »
This review contains some spoilers of a few of the sight gags and plot points in Private Parts. Private Parts was first performed in 1992, and in this staging, it hasn’t been re-written. Given that in it, transgender characters and the people around them attempt to articulate what being transgender means, how the rest of
“Private Parts”: Sometimes You’ve Got to Fix What God Gave You Read More »
ArtsEquator is two years old today! 🎉 Aside from our original reviews, essays, podcasts and visual essays, we’ve also organised programmes to strengthen performance criticism and critical discourse. ✒️ 💬 💭 🎭 👯 🎪 🎨 🎵 🎬 None of this would have been possible without the support of a community of critics, performance
ArtsEquator Turns Two! Read More »
The seventh edition of the President’s Young Talents exhibition (PYT) opened 4 October 2018 at the Singapore Art Museum (SAM). Since its first presentation in 2001, the platform has presented 38 artists, including this year’s Chen Yanyun, Chong Weixin, Debbie Ding, Hilmi Johandi and Zarina Muhammad. David Chan, Grace Tan, Zaki Razak, Roger Nelson, Jason
An Interview with Dr June Yap: President’s Young Talents 2018 Read More »
Call for Applications for Southeast Asian Choreolab 2019 We invite emerging contemporary dance choreographers (or performance artists or physical theatre creators) from Southeast Asia to apply for the Southeast Asian Choreolab 2019. This international choreographic laboratory will take place at Rimbun Dahan, outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 22 to 30 June 2019, facilitated by Australian
Open Calls and Job Opportunities: November 2018 (Singapore) Read More »
667, a Film Screening by Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, 17 – 18 November 2018 Here’s your chance to catch 667 《回程667》 as the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre celebrates the latest win of local filmmaker, Jun Chong, whose debut short film Ke《客》, was awarded the Best Asian Short at the 13th Sapporo International Short Film Festival. The
Weekly Picks: Singapore (12 – 18 November 2018) Read More »
In post-colonial Southeast Asia, the constraint of politically-engaged artworks is not uncommon. One can see the spatial and temporal struggles through telling cases from the region: last July, Seven Decades was a retrospective of political prisoners’ narratives in and out of Myanmar that was aptly shown at the Pyinsa Rasa Art Space in the Secretariat
Mirrored Interrogations Read More »
By Nabilah Said (1000 words, four-minute read) The most powerful moment of akulah BIMBO SAKTI’s Cerita Cinta is the end. To be perfectly clear, it is a dream of a production. The six-person ensemble is tight, the design is exacting, the 90-minute runtime breezes by. Credit goes to presenter The Esplanade for restaging this 1995
A History of Violence: The Sharp Edges of “Cerita Cinta” Read More »
Bras Basah.Bugis Art Sprawl, Handy Road Open Space, outside The Cathay, 9 – 10 November The Bras Basah.Bugis Arts Sprawl is a two-day event that offers an eclectic line-up of arts and heritage offerings for visitors young and old, held along Handy Road Open Space outside The Cathay. ‘Art sprawlers’ can indulge in some “me
Weekly Picks: Singapore (5 – 11 November 2018) Read More »
By Casidhe Ng (1,200 words, six-minute read) “You are a madman, and we are but fools,” the ensemble resounds. So begins Nine Years’ Theatre’s Lear is Dead, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear that borrows from the Chinese opera tradition, and a densely layered performance described as a “play-within-a-play”. True to its word, the show
Foolishness and Enlightenment in “Lear is Dead” Read More »
By Teo Xiao Ting (1,069 words, six-minute read) After a gleaming heap of corpses dissipates into the afterlife and comes back for a closing bow, Lear is Dead ends with the quiver of revelation. But wait, what was it exactly that we gleaned? A sideways glance at the audience around me, and everyone is already
Truth or Dare with “Lear is Dead” Read More »
At first encounter, it’s a terrifying word. The first time I came across the title I was still at school, and had just become angrily aware of the existence of Ben Power, a person who somehow had my ideal job. Now the first ever deputy artistic director at the National Theatre, at that point he
Dramaturgy Under Capitalism (via Exeunt) Read More »
Total darkness. The sound of sleep. Sleep of an eternal sort. Slowly the light reveals a solitary human body conveying a sense of sleep or is it semi-consciousness? Now, the entry of layers and strands of sound. Gentle clink of cymbals. Do I now hear the sound of waves lashing the shore? The lilting sound
Rianto’s “Medium”: Of Journeys, Transformations & Corporeality Read More »
“What will we forget? What do we hold on to? What will we remember? What do we let go of?” These were the questions posed by a volunteer in Mandarin to my 67-year-old mother at a void deck in Chong Pang. She was showing my mom how to make a paper windmill, a souvenir that
“Closer” at Both Sides, Now: What Do We Choose to Remember? Read More »
