Aliwal Tracks: Mr Gelam and the potential of virtual worldbuilding
Walk around Kampong Gelam today and it’s easy to forget how much of a rich historical site it used to be. Historical markers abound, and yet, grab any young person hanging out in its many hip dining establishments and they…
Offstage 3.0: Of stage and on walls
By Vithya Subramaniam (915 words, 4-minute read) It begins with a provocation, asking if we can ‘change the way we make theatre in the future’. The concern here is in the way theatre is made, the process. While raising these…
ArtsEquator’s Hot List: February 2021
Every first Wednesday of the month, ArtsEquator will release a list of recommended shows/events/programmes that our readers can look out for in that month. This list in published in no particular order. 1. Ulirát: Best Contemporary Stories in Translation…
Tender reading: A review of Loss Adjustment by Linda Collins
By Grace Foo (650 words, 3-minute read) Not many people can endure the traumatic experience of losing a child to suicide, let alone be of sound mind to write about it in a painfully self-aware manner. In Loss Adjustment, Linda…
A Malaysian under lockdown reviews Singapore Art Week 2021
By Ellen Lee (2,500 words, 9-minute read) Looking through the 35-page programme booklet for the 9th edition of Singapore Art Week (SAW), I was fully struck by my Malaysian-ness. Never before have I gone through a brochure for any art…
Statistically Speaking: What the data says about arts audiences in Singapore and Australia
On Thursday, 28 January 11am-12.30pm (GMT +8), representatives from Singapore’s National Arts Council (NAC) and the Australia Council for the Arts will discuss audience attitudes towards the arts in their respective countries in the webinar titled “Statistically Speaking: Analysing Arts…
House of Cardboard: A review of Impractical Uses of Cake by Yeoh Jo-Ann
By Nathaniel Chew (800 words, 4-minute read) Is it enough to be not unhappy? This is what Yeoh Jo-Ann’s Impractical Uses of Cake sets out to interrogate, framing the question in terms that speak to both existential crises at large…
Statistically Speaking: Analysing Arts Audience Engagement in Singapore and Australia
Representatives from Singapore’s National Arts Council (NAC) and the Australia Council for the Arts will discuss audience attitudes towards the arts in their respective countries, based on research survey data collected in 2019 and 2020. What does the data tell…
Festival Forum: Meeting-In-Progress at National Gallery Singapore
Where can we find each other? And where do we go from here? Happening on Saturday, January 23 2021, Festival Forum: Meeting-In-Progress discusses ideas, processes and ways forward in this new year of not-so-new normals. Both an agitation and undulation…
Open Calls and Opportunities: Jan 2021 (Singapore/SEA)
ArtsEquator Lobang is a list of available open calls, job postings and other opportunities open to people from Singapore and Southeast Asia. “Lobang”, a Malay word for “hole”, is used in Singlish as a shorthand for an opportunity, valuable contact…
Cakap-Cakap: Interview with Koh Wan Ching and Andrew Sutherland
In this new series of ArtEquator Cakap-Cakap (or in other words chit-chat), ArtsEquator sits down with director Koh Wan Ching and playwright Andrew Sutherland to chat about “creative romances”, random internet finds/memes and how things are going with their upcoming…
ArtsEquator’s Hot List: January 2021
Every first Wednesday of the month, ArtsEquator will release a list of recommended shows/events/programmes that our readers can look out for in that month. This list in published in no particular order. 1. M1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2021 20…
The top ArtsEquator articles of 2020
Below is a list of the top 10 ArtsEquator articles in 2020, in random order: An Elder Millennial’s Guide to Classic Singapore TV & Movies by Joel Tan Published on: 20 Aug 2020 “Purists are undecided on when exactly…
Maduro, online jazz concerts, SIFA: A jazz bar evolves in a pandemic
For former jazz pianist Peter Ng, the past year has been one of great change. Set up in mid-2019, Maduro was envisioned to be a jazz lounge and a whisky bar, but Ng quickly realised – hastened by the pandemic…
Did you want more sleep?: weish knows people are tired of livestreams
For artist weish, who is one-half of electronica duo .gif, this has been an intense year creatively, and one of increased self-scrutiny. Her most recent project, Did you want more sleep?, combines sound, visual and text, and references the artist’s…
Year In Review: Singapore Theatre 2020 in statistics
The statistics below are based on data gathered by Ke Weiliang and Centre 42, as part of Year in Review, an annual discussion and round-up of the performing arts in Singapore taking place on 19 December, jointly presented by Centre…
Open Calls and Opportunities: Dec 2020 (Singapore/SEA)
ArtsEquator Lobang is a list of available open calls, job postings and other opportunities open to people from Singapore and Southeast Asia. “Lobang”, a Malay word for “hole”, is used in Singlish as a shorthand for an opportunity, valuable contact…
Podcast 85: Singapore Theatre, Year in Review
In our end-of-year roundup, Nabilah Said, Naeem Kapadia and Matt Lyon take stock of the year in Singapore theatre, alongside guests Lee Shu Yu from Centre 42 and Max Yam from Arts Republic. This podcast is published as part of…
Year In Review: Tracing SG Theatre Together
ArtsEquator and Centre 42 jointly co-present the fourth edition of Year in Review, an annual discussion and round-up of the performing arts in Singapore. With the theme “Tracing SG Theatre Together”, this event will attempt to tackle the mess that…
Weekly Southeast Asia Radar: Southeast Asia rap on the rise; Kolektif Hysteria in Jakarta
ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asia Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the…
Podcast 84: Traditional Arts: Dikir Barat, Kavadi Attam and Nanyin
ArtsEquator speaks to Lyn Lee, Nirmala Seshadri and Soultari Amin Farid about Nanyin, Kavadi Attam and Dikir Barat and the study and practice of traditional arts in Singapore. This is a follow-up on ArtsEquator’s series of animated videos “10 Things“,…
New on ArtsEquator in 2021: Hot List, Teaser Tuesday and Cakap-Cakap
ArtsEquator is introducing three new series in 2021 – Hot List, Teaser Tuesday and Cakap-Cakap – to help promote shows, events and other arts and culture programmes in Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia. This is in tandem with…
Weekly Southeast Asia Radar: Vietnam’s art fondling problem; Silent Film Festival
ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asia Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the…
Why everyone is dancing during the pandemic: The Wandering at SIFA 2020
ArtsEquator speaks to Andy Chia, Natalie Alexandra, Rizman Putra, Russell Morton and Yeo Siew Hua, the creatives behind The Wandering, a dance film about loss connections and a family in crisis, about what it’s like working on the film together,…
Podcast 83: Waiting For The Host by Pangdemonium
Nabilah Said, Matthew Lyon and Naeem Kapadia discuss Waiting For The Host by Pangdemonium. The play is written by Marc Palmieri and directed by Tracie Pang. Waiting For The Host ran from 15 Oct to 1 Nov on SISTIC Live. Stream…
(Episode 3) What’s in a Scene – Cerita Cinta by akulah BIMBO SAKTI
In this last episode of What’s in a Scene, Noor Effendy Ibrahim and Dalifah Shahril break down a scene from Cerita Cinta (2018). First staged in 1995, Cerita Cinta marked playwright and director Noor Effendy Ibrahim’s return to Malay theatre…
Open Calls and Opportunities: Nov 2020 (Singapore/SEA)
ArtsEquator Lobang is a list of available open calls, job postings and other opportunities open to people from Singapore and Southeast Asia. “Lobang”, a Malay word for “hole”, is used in Singlish as a shorthand for an opportunity, valuable contact…
Weekly Southeast Asia Radar: Protest art in Thailand; The productive pandemic
ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asia Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the…
(Episode 2) What’s in a Scene – Nothing by Cake
‘We are all but moving shadows and all our busy rushing ends up in nothing’ In this episode, Natalie Hennedige and Siti Khalijah Zainal unpack a scene from Cake‘s Nothing and talk about the process and the inspiration behind the…
Weekly Southeast Asian Radar: Tattoos and culture in the Philippines; Politicians and their art
ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asia Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the…