Nutcha Tantivitayapitak and Sudarat Musikawong travel to Chiang Mai, Thailand to shine a light on the artn’t Collective, who are currently facing numerous legal charges for works that are viewed as critiquing the state.
Striving to experience Natasha on their own terms, Xiao Ting Teo runs through the gamut of emotions, from exhaustion to uncertainty, to amusement, to moments of connection at the Singapore Biennale 2022.
Artists from the region created a virtual time capsule to capture the objects and memories of the past two years.
In a country with opaque requirements for what can and cannot be shown, Linh Le highlights how something as seemingly straightforward as obtaining an exhibition licence may be used to control artistic expression in Vietnam.
Tại một đất nước như Việt Nam, nơi có những yêu cầu không rõ ràng về việc trưng bày, Linh Lê nhấn mạnh rằng chỉ cần một thứ tưởng chừng đơn giản như xin giấy phép triển lãm có thể trở thành một cách kiểm duyệt biểu đạt nghệ thuật.
Xiao Ting Teo is moved to consider how the detritus of being shapes us anew as she encounters two works, “Declutter Me!” and “Frequencies” at the The Substation’s annual SeptFest 2022: uproot | rootless.
Alia Swastika, the Director of the Jogja Biennale, offers a bold analysis of ruangrupa’s documenta fifteen, one that frames their artistic direction as an opening of new pathways that are long overdue.
Chong Fah Cheong is the artist behind First Generation, the iconic bronze sculpture of boys jumping into the Singapore River.
Burmese artists make art in exile in Thailand, finding refuge and showcasing cross-border solidarity for artistic freedom.
In his latest exhibition, Jerome Kugan embraces his amorphous self and allows themes of religion, sexuality and nudity to intertwine ever so delicately.
Veteran playwright Leow Puay Tin is intrigued by the methods used by a trio of young performance makers to sustain a 12-hour performance.
While the stated theme of the Biennale is to challenge the hegemony of the West, Nicole Wong finds that the spaces created for these interventions to happen struggles against the behemoth of the Biennale itself.
The Executive Director of Singapore’s Arts House Limited’s untimely death last week reverberated through the international art world. His colleagues pay tribute to his vision, leadership and friendship.
From technological frustrations to climate catastrophes to queer representation, the Ilham Art Show has it all. Mira Sharon untangles the pieces which prize on the themes of family, love and loss.
A series of four seminars was presented by researchers behind Being and Becoming: Of Femininities in the Malay World Through 50 Images.
This May, we are pleased to announce the launch of an online exhibition – Being and Becoming: Of Femininities in the Malay World Through 50 Images. This exhibition is part of a research project, Being and Becoming Female in the Malay World: Interrogating and Curating the Photo-Archives of Early Singapore, supported by the National Heritage …
Being and Becoming: Of Femininities in the Malay World Through 50 Images Read More »
Alex Foo reviews the exhibition The Tailors and the Mannequins, featuring works by Singaporean artist Chen Cheng Mei and Cambodian artist You Khin. The exhibition is part of Dalam Southeast Asia, National Gallery Singapore’s new space that presents perspectives from territorial Southeast Asia, aiming to spotlight lesser-known narratives in the region. Midway through the journey …
Eddie Wong writes of the various spectres around the riots of May 13 1969 that continue to haunt the Malaysian psyche till today. He conjures up new ways of thinking of ghosts and their connections with the living, and pays tribute to those who continue to contribute to the much-needed conversation around this topic. This …
Disability Arts: Critical Conversations between South Korea and Singapore Presented by ArtsEquator, Equal Dreams and Taeyoon Choi Studio Disability Arts has emerged as a powerful and dynamic area of practice within the wider arts and cultural landscape regionally in recent years. Yet, the work of rethinking and rebuilding disability-centred arts ecosystems is an ongoing process …
Disability Arts: Critical Conversations between South Korea and Singapore Read More »
These pioneers and rule breakers will change the way you view the regional arts scene. Throughout history and up to the present day, it has been a challenge to define contemporary Southeast Asian art. One such roadblock comes in the form of a lack of proper archives and documentation. Another issue is that Southeast Asia’s …
5 Artists Who Influenced Contemporary Southeast Asian Art Read More »
The Singapore Art Week (SAW) officially runs from 14th to 23rd January 2022. With over 130 physical and online events running across the island, it is a mammoth task to cover all the offerings available. Nevertheless, here are four shows – big and indie – that caught my eye. Hawker! Hawker! 13 collaborators from Singapore, …
Singapore Art Week 2022: Returning to form, not FOMO Read More »
Text and Photos by Grace Baey Amidst the line-up of events at Singapore Art Week 2022, The Arts House is currently a site for three new installation works by artists Speak Cryptic, Jason Wee and WY-TO, and the National Library Board. We spoke with the artists and organisers to learn more about their works, beyond …
Capturing The Imagination: Art Installations at The Arts House Read More »
By Daniel Teo (1,018 words, 4-minute read) When the tour party assembles for Brian Gothong Tan’s The Swimming Pool Library exhibition, I realise I am likely the oldest person in the group. Our tour leader, Elijah Tay (pronouns “they”/“them”), introduces themselves and announces they had just turned 20. Just great, my mid-30s self thought. When …
The Swimming Pool Library Exhibition: Mind The Gap? Read More »
Below is a list of the top 10 ArtsEquator articles in 2021, in random order: The Substation: How many more canaries in the coal mine? by Hoe Su Fern Published on: 20 Feb 2021 “Although the current situation facing The Substation is not new or unique, its impending fate is emblematic of, and raises …
Let’s face it, 2021 in Singapore sucked harder than 2020. The waves of mildly inconvenient restrictions did more to chip away at everyone’s mental health than 2020’s “shut-everything-down” Circuit Breaker. Amidst the litany of changes to safe-distancing regulations though, the museums and galleries have remained open. Here’s my rundown of the highlights of Singapore’s museums, …
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 …
Phuong M. Do: The Puzzle of Photography, or What Fits and What Does Not Read More »
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 …
ANCER Lab 03 Manila: How arts managers are surviving COVID-19 Read More »
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 …
So You Wanna Be An Independent Art Curator in Singapore? Read More »
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 …
Yale-NUS closure: Artistic legacies and loss in (de)liberation Read More »
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 …
Performance Making during a Pandemic: Of Innovation, Form and Embeddedness Read More »
![Installation view of Maile Meyer & Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick’s KĪPUKA [for “Natasha”] (2022), as part of Singapore Biennale 2022 named Natasha. Image courtesy of Singapore Art Museum](https://artsequator.s3.ap-southeast-1.amazonaws.com/2022/12/Installation-view-of-Maile-Meyer-Drew-Kahu%CA%BBaina-Brodericks-KIPUKA-for-Natasha-2022-as-part-of-Singapore-Biennale-2022-named-Natasha.-Image-courtesy-of-Singapore-Art-Museum-1620x1080.jpg)
