Features Archives

Phuong M. Do: The Puzzle of Photography, or What Fits and What Does Not

This article is published as part of the inaugural AE x Goethe-Institut Critical Writing Micro-Residency 2021/2022. Last year, I embarked on a two-month research that sought to sketch a possible genealogy of “Vietnamese contemporary art” that foregrounds female art practitioners. Spanning two print issues of a magazine, roughly twenty-one pages, the final essay celebrates more […]

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Courtesy of Arts House Limited

Our Cultural Medallion Story: 3 ways to explore this showcase of Singapore artists

A new interactive showcase is shining the spotlight on the 130 artists who have been conferred the Cultural Medallion, Singapore’s highest accolade for the arts. Titled Our Cultural Medallion Story, the exhibition consists of a physical exhibition–with artefacts, write-ups, books and multimedia components—and a companion website, which introduces the public to these renowned artists from

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WrICE 2021: Writers Ask Writers, Asia Pacific edition

We asked 11 writers and translators of poetry, fiction and non-fiction to participate in an exquisite corpse-like Q&A session, with each person answering a question and then asking one. These writers, who hail from countries in the Asia Pacific such as Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Japan, are part of the 2021 cohort of

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Rethinking contemporaries: Asian Producers’ Platform Speaker Series

By Wennie Yang (690 words, 2-minute read) There is a quiet and perhaps stubborn optimism that underlies the work of a producer. Perhaps one could call it an occupational hazard, always seeking new ways to do things. This spirit seemed to drive the most recent Asian Producers’ Platform (APP) open forum, which took place from

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SEE WHAT SEE: SEA AT SGIFF 2021

In this edition of See What See, we review three films made by Southeast Asian directors and featuring Southeast Asia currently showing at the Singapore International Film Festival 2021 (SGIFF). SGIFF runs from 25 November to 5 December 2021 with over 100 films from more than 40 countries. Also check out Fiona Lee’s review of

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Mah Jun Yi and Low Pey Sien

ANCER Lab 03 Manila: How arts managers are surviving COVID-19

By Wennie Yang (1,200 words, 4-minute read) Pandemic restrictions have put arts and cultural workers and institutions in a bind: choosing between sustaining their missions at times of a global pandemic or ceasing operations altogether. How have Southeast Asian arts managers survived? That was the question at the heart of the third ANCER Lab, formed

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ARTSEQUATOR TURNS 5: Here’s 5 articles, podcasts and videos to check out.

ArtsEquator is five this month! To celebrate, we’ve trawled through our archives to select some of our past content that we think is worth a revisit! Also look out for more features in the next few weeks! 5 articles you should check out: To Biennale or Not to Biennale by Sunitha Janamohanan. Part 2 here.

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httpswww.singaporewritersfestival.comwriter-presenter-detailssunisa-manning

Illustrations by Divyalakshmi and Natalie Christian Tan

Shock Horror: The Southeast Asian monsters we love

ArtsEquator chats with five writers about their favourite horror characters and monsters from Southeast Asian lore and mythology. We then asked two Singapore artists, Natalie Christian Tan and Divyalakshmi, to respond with a custom illustration based on the replies. Singapore Writers Festival 2021 runs from 5 to 14 November 2021 with the theme “Guilty Pleasures”

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So You Wanna Be An Independent Art Curator in Singapore?

By Syed Muhammad Hafiz (1,000 words, 3-minute read) For the uninitiated, art curators are a mysterious bunch. Even scary, sometimes. Usually associated with big, stuffy museums, they speak a particular language that only they would recognise, and write essays that would require you to have a dictionary on hand. Fortunately, most of those stereotypes are

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Courtesy of Zinkie Aw and Drama Box

Reframing The Mental Health Discourse ‘With Time’

For his directorial and playwriting debut, Drama Box’s resident artist, Chng Yi Kai, wants to reframe the discourse around mental health. This might seem ambitious for a young artist of 29, but this issue has been percolating in his mind since he was in university a couple of years ago. “I was going through some

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Raphael Hugh

Yale-NUS closure: Artistic legacies and loss in (de)liberation

In August, the National University of Singapore (NUS) announced unilaterally that Yale-NUS College would be shut down by 2025, marking what many see as a premature end to the partnership between Yale University and NUS that started in 2011. The months since have seen an outpouring of grief, anger, and resistance against the decision to

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The working processes of artists: Daly Filsuf

“I want to bring all the Asian kinds of music to the world, with our language,” says rapper and music producer Daly Filsuf. In this video, the artist talks about dikir barat as a genre, and how he has fused elements of dikir barat and Malay traditional music into his work with Malay hip hop

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Screen Shot 2021-09-29 at 5.10.12 AM (2)

Kornkarn Rungsawang

Performance Making during a Pandemic: Of Innovation, Form and Embeddedness

By Adriana Nordin Manan (1,000 words, 3-minute read) If arts panel discussions are meant to reflect the times, “Critical Responses to Performance-Making in A Post-Pandemic World” positioned itself well: at this stage of the pandemic, it was less about open-ended contemplation of how the performing arts can retain vitality amidst the prohibitive circumstances, and more

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Cakap-Cakap: Interview with Jo Kukathas for Air Con

We cakap-cakap (chit-chat) with Jo Kukathas about The Instant Café Theatre Company’s upcoming screening of Air Con, an award-winning 2008 play written by Shanon Shah. The play revolves around the murder of a sex worker near an elite boys school in Kedah and how it roils the school community. The play, which was directed by

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Cultivating Arts Writing Ecosystems: Criticality and Creativity amidst Necessity

By Adriana Nordin Manan (995 words, 3-minute read) Personal narratives on professional pathways to becoming arts writers in four Asian countries were the departure point for the rich discussion at “Critical Writing Training: Models, Methods and Pitfalls,” a panel session held on 15th September in conjunction with the Asian Art Media Roundtable (AAMR). This was

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Ho Shu En

Dear Waterloo Street, From An Emerging Arts Manager

Waterloo Street is for me, a place of beginnings. It has accompanied me through my journey as an arts management student from Singapore Management University (SMU) to my current job as an arts manager with Theatre Practice. While many things may have changed, Waterloo Street has remained a persistent presence in my life. Waterloo Street

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Kelecung, Bali.

Dialogues with Mountains: Preserving indigenous culture in Taromak and Kelecung

By Wennie Yang (1,400 words, 6-minute read) Let’s face it. Leisure travel feels like a distant memory at the moment. I’ve been trying to envision what a collective future means for destination hotspots in Southeast Asia, whose economies used to be propelled by foreign tourism. These thoughts were further spurred after attending a one-day online

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Courtesy of Syarifah Nadhirah

Caring for the Carers: How Malaysian artists working with communities hold space

I had forgotten how loaded the words “how are you,” or “apa khabar,” can be. I’ve always had issues with the greeting – I used to think that it was a statement/question that stops someone cold the moment they are asked, as how can you even summarise how you are doing if you start reflecting

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Nguyen Dinh Toan

Fragments of History: Loc Vang, the Yellow music singer from Hanoi

It was perhaps the melancholy of history that was the most palpable presence in the livestream action Fragments of History, which I organised as part of Mekong Cultural Hub’s Mini-Meeting Point held on 17 July 2021. Though it took place in under 30 minutes, the event brought me and the audience onsite and on Facebook

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Cakap-Cakap: Interview with Salty Xi Jie Ng

In this month’s Cakap-Cakap (chit-chat), ArtsEquator speaks with artist Salty Xi Jie Ng, whose most recent project, Not Grey: Intimacy, Ageing & Being, excavated what intimacy means for older Singapore women (hint: it’s not all about sex!). The digital experience, comprised of video vignettes, interactive performances and writing, was presented by T:>Works as part of the

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Hello I'm Nik on Unsplash

Saya Takut Untuk Mengkritik Sehinggalah Saya Berjumpa Sekumpulan Pengkritik: Refleksi Terhadap AAMR

Bila anda mendengar perkataan “pengkritik”, apakah yang anda bayangkan? Saya sering membayangkan orang yang pakai cermin mata; ulat buku, sangat serius, dan payah untuk puaskan hatinya. Daripada pandangan saya dulu, pengkritik adalah orang yang menulis dan berbicara tentang karya seni, dan selalunya menggunakan perkataan yang canggih dan bicaranya disirami jargon yang mengelirukan. Saya pernah rasa

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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 five creative practitioners working across different local community contexts: community architect-urbanist Joanne Mun advocates for

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The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre

The performing arts industry of Malaysia is drowning

As many parts of Southeast Asia are hit by recurrent waves of Covid 19 infections, arts industries across the region face imminent collapse due to prolonged closures and scant state support. In Malaysia, The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre’s Artistic Director Joe Hasham and his wife and co-founder, Datuk Dr. Faridah Merican, recently released an

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Hello I'm Nik on Unsplash

I Was Afraid Of Critiquing Until I Met A Bunch Of Critics: Reflections on AAMR 2021

When you hear the word “critic”, what image do you conjure? I used to imagine a bespectacled person; bookish, extremely serious, and tough to please. From my point of view back then, critics were people you would find writing or talking about works of art, often or almost always using sophisticated vocabulary and generously peppering

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Courtesy of SDEA

Drama Lessons: Key takeaways from the SDEA Theatre Arts Conference 2021

The much-anticipated SDEA Theatre Arts Conference came to a close on 30 May after nine days of workshops, masterclasses and presentations by theatre practitioners and drama educators from 14 countries including India, Greece, United Kingdom (UK), Singapore and Australia. Adapting the well-established live conference format to the online medium, with programmes spanning multiple time zones

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Courtesy of Arts House Limited

_T0701_ by Zeugma: How power mutates

Nabilah Said speaks to Safuan Johari, Rizman Putra and Brandon Tay of Zeugma on their current show _T0701_ (say “toyol”, it’s much more fun), currently available via video-on-demand at the Singapore International Festival of Arts. The show explores a pseudo-futuristic Singapore via the eyes of protagonist Jati, a delivery personnel who navigates the surveilled roads

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Mekong Cultural Hub

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 other interested parties from around the region gathered to discuss their experiences melding arts with

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CRISPI

A Dream Under The Southern Bough: A Look Back and A Look Forward

Alongside Goh Boon Teck, artistic director of Toy Factory, we look back at the journey of A Dream Under The Southern Bough, an ambitious trilogy retelling of Tang Xianzu’s 16th century epic of the same name, which combines Kun opera with contemporary staging and elements. The third and final installment, Existence, brings us to the

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Courtesy of Arts House Limited

OIWA – The Ghost of Yotsuya: Primal story of love, or the failures of it

An epic set, an epic story, and epic four years of painstaking training is one way to describe The Finger Players’ OIWA – The Ghost of Yotsuya, an aching horror story that retells the classic tale of vengeance revolving around a jilted woman. Combining techniques of Kabuki, Bunraku and Ningyo Buri, as well as the

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Who’s Afraid of the VOD?: Highlights of SIFA On Demand

Let’s face it. In the early days of the pandemic, we mourned for live theatre. Zoom theatre felt like the next best thing, if not quite the real thing. And yet, that period was also one of great experimentation, and brought to us different kinds of online experiences created by artists, with various degrees of

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