Joint Book Launch for Two Tails and Afterlife: The Boy Next Realm
2023-05-28 14:30 - 15:30 (Asia/Shanghai) | National Library Building, 100 Victoria Street, Singapore, Singapore, 188064, Singapore
The Difference Engine team invites you to the joint book launch of our latest Young Adult comics: “Two Tails” and “Afterlife: The Boy Next Realm”!
Join us for a whirlwind adventure, and enter the fascinating worlds of “Two Tails” and “Afterlife: The Boy Next Realm”. These stories feature heartfelt characters and interweave themes of tragedy and acceptance with journeys of self-discovery and redemption.
This book launch will be held as part of the Asian Festival of Children’s Content 2023. This is an in-person event with on-site book sales of “Two Tails” and “Afterlife: The Boy Next Realm” and an opportunity to get your copy signed by the creators.

Gallery Keynote | Kaywin Feldman on Building a National Collection in a Changing Nation
2023-05-28 14:30 - 15:30 | The Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium, City Hall Wing, Level B1, National Gallery Singapore, Singapore, Singapore, 178957, Singapore
Gallery Keynote is a series that invites the world’s visionaries, thinkers and industry and opinion leaders to consider issues fundamentally relating to the future of museums and their role in culture and society.

Kaywin Feldman (Director, The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.) leads an institution of intriguing paradox: The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. was founded in 1941 by millionaire Andrew Mellon to educate a monolithic populace and to bestow contemporary ideas of good taste. Mellon’s offering was in fact a grand populist gesture, a true gift that continues to benefit his nation to this day. Yet as societies shift and change, what is the unique but ever-evolving role of a national art museum as it navigates the challenges and opportunities of a dynamic and expanding global audience? What does it mean to be and to become a nation’s art museum during a time of immense global volatility and complexity? Kaywin Feldman shares her insights in a lecture, which is followed by a conversation with Eugene Tan (Director, National Gallery Singapore and Singapore Art Museum).

This programme is supported by The Culture Academy.

Sun 28 May | 2.30pm | The Ngee Ann Kongsi Auditorium, City Hall Wing, Level B1, National Gallery Singapore |
Free, registration required: https://bit.ly/GalleryKeynote_2023

ACM Adventures: Sail the Seas
2023-05-28 11:00 - 15:00 | Asian Civilisations Museum, 1 Empress Pl,, Singapore, 179555, Singapore
Sunday, 28 May 2023
11am to 3pm
Asian Civilisations Museum
Free

Hello, explorer! Are you ready to set sail? Move along to drama performance and listen to a story about adventures at sea. Get creative in a craft activity inspired by boats found in our galleries!

Headline Acts | SIFA X: there is no future in nostalgia
2023-05-27 20:00 - 22:00 | Black Box, 42 Waterloo Street, 42 Waterloo Street, Singapore, 187951, Singapore
Headline Acts is a fun and informal reading series open to writers of all experience levels wishing to showcase plays or scenes. The only rule is, each work is a short (10-15 minutes) dramatic pieces that respond to recent headlines.
For this special SIFA edition of Headline Acts, part of Centre 42’s group show SIFA-X: there is no future in nostalgia, we are turning our attention to that special dynamic between new and old, past and future. And so we’re asking all participants to respond to a headline of their choice from 30 years ago – in the year 1993.
6 writers were shortlisted through an Open Call that took place on 1 March 2023. The works they will be presenting are:

“Sotong” by Kay Lynn Er
“All Kinds of Time” by Wisely Chow
“An Examination” by Ivan Choong
“The Chilli Powder Sisters” by Melizarani T. Selva
“Kids, Gifts, COEs & Roast Duck” by Irsyad Dawood
“Is It Because I’m…” by Isaac Lim

The events will be headlined by two invited writers whose careers kicked off in the 90s. Their new works are:

“The Three Ages” by Jean Tay
“Motherland” by Very Shy Gurl by fendy

These eight new short pieces are presented across 2 sessions. Acts 1 will take place on Saturday 27 May 8pm, and Acts 2 will take place on Sunday 28 May 3pm.

CUCKOO
2023-05-27 20:00 - 21:00 | Drama Centre Black Box, Singapore, Select a Country:
What can a bunch of talkative rice cookers tell us about the past twenty years of Korean history?
One day when his electric rice cooker informed him that his meal was ready, Jaha Koo experienced a deep sense of isolation. ‘Golibmuwon’ (고립무원) is an untranslatable Korean word expressing the feeling of helpless isolation that characterises the lives of many young people in Korea today. At turns sombre and amusing, CUCKOO is Jaha Koo’s bittersweet reflection on the personal and social impact of economic crises that South Korea has weathered in recent decades.
Cuckoo is part of Jaha Koo’s Hamartia Trilogy. SIFA 2023 presents two works from this trilogy: Lolling and Rolling, and Cuckoo. Jaha Koo intertwines personal stories with historical, political and sociological facts, exploring the clash of Eastern and Western culture: from the cutting of tongue belts to succeed in the West, to the heavy personal toll of Western interference in global macroeconomics.

ME, YOU, THEN, NOW
2023-05-27 20:00 - 21:00 | Victoria Theatre, 9 Empress Pl, 179556, Singapore, 179556, Singapore
ME, YOU, THEN, NOW is a self-portrait in movement, video, and words: a performative archive. We are invited to join artist Muna Tseng on a retrospective journey, from her days of being a young artist weaving her web of identity within the urban mythology of downtown New York City (NYC), through to the present with her meta-meditations on making new art today. As the fourth instalment in her Family Portraits series, comprising poignant cross-cultural inventive performance portraits of her brother, her mother and her paternal grandfather, this latest portrait is Muna telling her own story, as a distinguished mature woman artist in the 70th year of her life.

Musical Movements
2023-05-27 19:30 - 21:00 | Esplanade Recital Studio, 1 Esplanade Dr, Singapore, 038981, Singapore
Musical Movements is a family-friendly multi-disciplinary concert performance presenting modern and contemporary classical works with a twist! Join us on our journey to explore the adventurous, unique soundworlds from composers of our time, and be fully immersed with interactive dance, animation and theatrics.
Featuring works by young local composers Darren Sng and Tan Yu Ting, renowned contemporary composers Aleksey Igudesman and Toru Takemitsu, as well as 20th century composers Bartok and Shostakovich, the musicians will be challenged with near-impossible feats of physical coordination and choreography, performed alongside original choreography and animation specially curated for this programme.
Audiences can enjoy this performance through standard seating on chairs or experience a more intimate performance with floor seating closer to the performance area. Interactive activities and booklets for children will be provided during intermission and after the concert.
Musicians: Farah Wu, Tan Tiag Yi, Yeo Xing Tong
Dancer: Leow Huey Li
Animators: Koh Shimin, Li Xuanwei
Organisers: Farah Wu, Tan Tiag Yi
Curator & Emcee: Wu Chin Ying
Programme
Aleksey Igudesman and Hyung-ki Joo, How Far Can You Go for violin and piano (2014)
Tan Yu Ting, Chapteh for solo violin (2021)
Toru Takemitsu, Rocking Mirror Daybreak for two violins (1983)
(20-minute Intermission)
Darren Sng, 1=3 for singing and piano-playing violinist (2020)
Bela Bartok, Dance No. 2 and No. 4 from Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm Sz. 107 for solo piano (1939)
Dmitri Shostakovich, arr. Lev Atomyan, Five Pieces for two violins and piano (1970)
This performance is kindly supported by the National Youth Council Young ChangeMakers Grant.
Any material, information or views expressed are those of the organisers and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other supporting organisation.
Charity Partnership
For this performance, we are partnering with Glyph Community, a registered charity aiming to advance opportunities for underprivileged children and youth in Singapore to access world-class holistic development through conducting weekly non-academic activities and programmes. We are looking for generous members of the public to sponsor tickets for the beneficiaries of Glyph and their chaperones to attend this performance at no cost.
If you would like to sponsor a beneficiary’s ticket, priced at $25, please purchase a ticket in the category titled ‘Donation Ticket for Glyph Community Beneficiary’ and transfer the received from Peatix back to us at the email address farahwu2011@outlook.com with the subject title Donation Ticket for Glyph Community Beneficiary. Details on how to do a transfer of ticket can be found here. Upon successful transfer of your ticket, you will receive an email confirmation of receipt within 2 days. Please feel free to email us if you have any more questions regarding this sponsorship, and we thank you in advance for your kindness. We target to provide about 20 beneficiary tickets to Glyph for this performance.
Ticketing
Limited concession tickets priced at $25 each are available for full-time students, full-time national servicemen (NSF) and senior citizens (60 years and above).
Please purchase tickets for children aged 12 and below under the corresponding category so that ample activity booklets will be provided for them. Please also bring colour pencils and scotchtape if possible!
All other patrons should purchase general admission tickets for $30.
Admission Rules
No children below the age of 3 will be admitted. Concession ticket holders should bring proof of their status, such as driver’s licence or student pass, as random checks may be conducted at the venue. Refunds will not be granted to ticket-holders who do not meet these admission requirements.
Latecomers will only be admitted at suitable breaks. Patrons may choose to sit anywhere during the concert, except on seats which are reserved for VIPs and Glyph’s beneficiaries. We reserve the right to ask parents to bring children out of the hall should they be disruptive during the performance. There is no admission without a ticket.
No videography and flash photography will be allowed during the performance.
Special Needs
The Esplanade Recital Studio provides a relaxed corner for audience members with diverse needs who may require a quiet space during the performance. If you foresee a need for it, please approach the Front-of-House crew to show you its location.

Contact
More information and previews of the concert will be shared on our Instagram page @musical.movements

LOLLING AND ROLLING
2023-05-27 18:00 - 19:00 | Singapore
Exploring English as the predominant language of political power, LOLLING AND ROLLING is a powerful one-man show that traces the shadow of linguistic imperialism within Korean society, and questions its impact on the “inaudible voice” of the subaltern. Lolling and Rolling takes as a starting point the phenomenon of tongue-tie surgery, an operation performed in South Korea to pronounce the English-accented “r”. Through a blend of multimedia elements and performance, Jaha Koo unveils a practice which tries to silence minorities and deny their cultural agency. Lolling and Rolling is part of Jaha Koo’s Hamartia Trilogy. SIFA 2023 presents two works from this trilogy: Lolling and Rolling, and Cuckoo.

Down the River, Along the Streets of ACM
2023-05-27 10:00 - 2023-05-28 19:00 | Asian Civilisations Museum, 1 Empress Pl,, Singapore, 179555, Singapore
Down the River, Along the Streets of ACM
Saturday – Sunday, 27 – 28 May 2023
10am – 7pm
Asian Civilisations Museum
Free admission to the museum and most activities
Journey through time along the iconic Singapore River for this year’s Singapore HeritageFest. Hop on a bumboat or embark on walking tours to witness the transformation of the river and its surroundings. Catch interactive storytelling sessions and performances to experience the sights and sounds of the river during its heyday.

SIFA 2023: LOVE DIVINE
2023-05-26 19:00 - 2023-05-27 19:00 | CÉ LA VI, CÉ LA VI, Singapore, Singapore
Date: 26 May Friday & 27 May Saturday
Time: 7pm
Duration: Durational, free & easy
Venue: CÉ LA VI
Tickets: $58
Minimum admission age of 18 years
CÉ LA VI, Singapore’s iconic club space pinnacling Marina Bay Sands sets the stage for LOVE DIVINE, a SIFA X performance spectacle plunging us into the creative recesses of Singapore’s Queen of Burlesque, SUKKI (formerly known as Sukki Singapora), Creative Director of CHILDREN OF VENUS a burlesque and vaudeville feast choreographed, curated and sprinkled with SUKKI’s divine touch, and the astonishing Daniel Kok and Luke George whose mind-blowing performance-installation STILL LIVES (Marina Bay) miraculously turns rope art into statements of care and social commentary.
Image Courtesy of Arts House Limited, Artwork for CHILDREN OF VENUS by Karolina Skorek

BLKDOG
2023-05-25 20:00 - 21:30 | SOTA Drama Theatre, 1 Zubir Said Dr, Singapore 227968, 227968, Singapore
BLKDOG is street dance as you’ve never seen it before. Hailed by The Guardian as “a powerful evocation of alienation, oppression and memory”, BLKDOG is a delicate and brutal commentary on how today’s youth are coping in a world not built for them. Using hip hop in a contemporary style powered by high-energy moves and captivating athleticism, Botis Seva creates unique and dynamic choreography that explores the connections between self-discovery and self-destruction and the search for coping mechanisms in the ultimate hunt for acceptance.

The Asian Festival of Children's Content
2023-05-25 09:00 - 2023-05-28 19:15 | National Library Building, 100 Victoria Street, Singapore, Singapore, 188064, Singapore
The 14th Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) returns this year as a fully in-person event, celebrating the theme “Play!”

With over 70 programmes featuring more than 100 writers and speakers from Singapore and around the world, AFCC 2023 explores the different dimensions of “Play” through books, stories and performances. Come join our panels, workshops, public programmes and more, as we showcase Vietnam as our Country of Focus.

£¥€$ (LIES)
2023-05-23 20:30 - 22:30 | SOTA Studio Theatre, 1 Zubir Said Drive, Singapore, 227968, Singapore
In this game-inspired immersive and participatory performance, award-winning theatre company Ontroerend Goed invites you to become part of the elite 1% who control the global economy. There may be no time for ethics; you’re in to win. Things get complicated: you can up your risk, trade in debt, make mergers and acquisitions. Taste the heady atmosphere of trading markets, feel the heat of money moving, and get ready to question everything you think you know about the world of high finance.

MATERIA
2023-05-21 15:00 - 16:30, 2023-05-20 20:00 - 21:30 | SOTA Studio Theatre, 1 Zubir Said Drive, Singapore, 227968, Singapore
In this remarkable performance of object theatre, Andrea Salustri explores the possibilities of polystyrene, the most common form of plastic. Watch as it comes alive and becomes the protagonist of the events on stage. MATERIA inspires us to consider how we engage with objects, allowing them to perform their own artistry and create their own magic. MATERIA allows the material to tell its own story, and the audience to project their own interpretations on the performance on stage. Within a set score, objects are free to perform and take initiative.

Images on the Run | Through the Lens of Wawi Navarroza & Miti Ruangkritya
2023-05-21 14:00 - 15:30 | National Gallery Singapore, City Hall Wing, Level 2, Singapore Courtyard, Singapore, Singapore, 178957, Singapore
The early history of photography in Southeast Asia is largely defined by an ethnographic approach that attempted to “fix” the colonised body. In these images, the subject often remained rooted in space and in (developmental) time, while the photographer was highly itinerant. But what happens when the itinerant photographer is also the subject, or when the photographer turns their attention towards a subject matter that is in a highly agitated state of flux? This panel considers the works of artists Wawi Navarroza and Miti Ruangkritya against how photos are created, manipulated and circulated today via social media.

This panel discussion is moderated by Kenneth Tay (Assistant Curator, Singapore Art Museum), and organised in conjunction with the Gallery’s special exhibition “Living Pictures: Photography in Southeast Asian Art”.

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About the Speakers

MITI RUANGKRITYA is a visual artist whose photography practice incorporates video, text, and publishing in examining the notion of the City. Encompassing topics ranging political upheaval, ecological change, dislocation, and economic inequalities, his oeuvre chronicles personal responses to his everyday observations while communicating the urban urgencies of contemporary living. His utilisation of media beyond traditional digital and film photography elucidates the nature of image generation, presentation, and consumption in a world increasingly defined by the visual experience. He is the recipient of numerous awards and commendations, and his art practice and publications are represented in public and private collections and libraries worldwide. He lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand.

WAWI NAVARROZA is a Filipina contemporary artist with an international art practice known for her works in photography. Her works navigate self and surrounding as seen in her self-portraits, landscapes and installations. She is informed by tropicality within the dynamics of post-colonial dialogue, globalization, and the artist as a transnational agent. As a female artist, Southeast Asian and Filipino, her works transmute lived experience to the symbolic using material and studio techniques; creating images that explore the hybridity of identity, photography and place. Her works are surveyed in books “Photography Today” (Phaidon), “Contemporary Photography in Asia” (Prestel) and is currently nominated for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award 2023. Navarroza is also a speaker on art and visual culture, most recent at UNESCO Dhaka and at the Atatürk Kültür Merkezi, Istanbul. Navarroza was born and raised in Manila, has lived in Spain and is currently based between Manila and Istanbul.

KENNETH TAY is Assistant Curator at Singapore Art Museum. He writes on media histories, global infrastructures and logistics, and is the author of The Sea is All Highway (Temporary Press, 2019). His curatorial project, FLAT.SPACES (2018), examines the infrastructural critique in the work of Singaporean net-art collective tsunamii.net (2001‒2005). Presently, he is working on a curatorial project that looks into postwar Singapore’s relationship to oil and its global networks. He holds a MA in Media Studies from The New School.

—
About “Living Pictures: Photography in Southeast Asian Art”

Photographs surround us every day and everywhere. They shape the way we see the world and the way we see ourselves. Explore the changing roles of photography in Southeast Asia—from its beginnings as a tool of European exploration to the “performance” of studio portraits; from the incomplete realities of war to the rise of fine art; and finally to the memes and selfies that saturate social media today.

Click here to find out more about the exhibition and its upcoming programmes: https://www.nationalgallery.sg/livingpictures

The Vault: Past Perfect | SIFA X: there is no future in nostalgia
2023-05-20 20:00 - 21:30 | Black Box, 42 Waterloo Street, 42 Waterloo Street, Singapore, 187951, Singapore
4 actors gather and they reflect on their journey through Theatre in the 1990s. With 20/20 hindsight, what did it mean to DO theatre in the 1990s? Why did they do what they do and more importantly, how? Without any rose-tinted glass, no misty water-coloured memories, these actors share their thoughts and ruminations. Guiding them is a young actor born in the 1990s, asking questions and also wondering – is the past really so perfect?
Conceptualised by Robin Loon and Casey Lim, and co-created with Nelson Chia, Oniatta Effendi, Serene Chen, Tan Kheng Hua and Lim Shi-An, The Vault: Past Perfect is a performance of pieces that draw on the personal archive, reflecting on the energy and legacy of Singapore theatre-making in the 1990s.

SIFA 2023: THERE IS NO FUTURE IN NOSTALGIA
2023-05-20 15:00 - 2023-05-28 20:00 | Black Box, 42 Waterloo Street, 42 Waterloo Street, Singapore, 187951, Singapore
Date: 20 May Saturday & 21 May Sunday
Date: 27 May Saturday & 28 May Sunday
Time: 3pm & 8pm
Venue: 42 Waterloo Street
Tickets: $25
Centre 42 presents a collection of new performances devised by its resident artists and invited guests. Titled “there is no future in nostalgia,” after Arthur Yap’s iconic poem about the fatigue of urban renewal, we invite artists to consider the tensions between new and old, the technocratic and the civic—and consider how they come to bear on the art of theatre-making.
SIFA X: THERE IS NO FUTURE IN NOSTALGIA comprises: The Vault, with pieces drawn from practitioners’ memories of theatre in the 90s; Studio, a series of staged readings of new short works by our resident playwrights; and Headline Acts, an open-format evening where writers present short dramatic pieces in response to archival headlines.
Image courtesy of Centre 42

ANGEL ISLAND
2023-05-19 20:00 - 22:00 | Singtel Waterfront Theatre at The Esplanade, 8 Raffles Ave., Singapore 039802, Singapore, Singapore, 039802, Singapore
Between 1910 and 1940, as new immigrants flowed through the immigration station on Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay, Chinese immigrants faced massive discrimination because of America’s earliest racist immigration legislations. This captivating one-act music-theatre performance tells their stories.
Composed by Huang Ruo, the music of ANGEL ISLAND is inspired by the Chinese poems carved on the wooden walls of the detention centre on Angel Island, and the events and stories emerging from the era in which the legislations were passed. Tackling perennial and global issues of xenophobia, sexism, and systematic racial and gender discrimination, ANGEL ISLAND weaves a story of immigration, discrimination, and confinement – bringing history into the reality of our current lives. Performed by Del Sol Quartet and Taipei Chamber Singers.

ABYSS
2023-05-19 20:00 - 21:30 | SOTA Drama Theatre, 1 Zubir Said Dr, Singapore 227968, 227968, Singapore
With soulful and meditative turns, ABYSS forms an ode to the depths of human emotion. Principles of Korean dance meld with the vocabulary of contemporary movement to form a unique vehicle for expressions of joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure to mingle. A humble sailing boat becomes a metaphor for the soul, floating alone on the open, unpredictable sea of life, with its winds of upheaval, crests of joy and storms of powerful sorrow.
ABYSS invites you to experience the spectrum of human feeling: to laugh, weep and sing along with the dancers, and to move with the waves of the sea, to ultimately make space once again to sail in the boat that is inside of you.

Wind Up Mice
2023-05-19 19:00 - 2023-05-27 21:00 | Java Creative Cafe Toul Tom Poung, 53 Street 468, Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
From Khmer playwright and director, Samithi Sok, comes his sophomore play, Wind Up Mice, an original and independent theatre production coming to Java Creative Café, Phnom Penh. Co-directed by Marika Els.
Wind Up Mice follows Reagan and Chang, a couple for whom the end is not the end. Trapped in a never-ending loop, the fated pair find their relationship played out again and again across the entirety of time. Deeply intimate, at times profound, at times horrifying, and above-all unflinchingly honest, Wind Up Mice is an examination of free will, resentment and toxicity, and the undying power of love.

Dates: 19, 20, 26 and 27 May at 7 pm, with an additional matinee at 1 pm on 27 May
Venue: Java Creative Cafe Toul Tom Poung.
Tickets are now available through the link below:
https://forms.gle/THvi8FLsvE2pts6H9

SIFA 2023: POMPEII
2023-05-18 08:00 - 17:00 | Drama Centre Theatre, National Library, Victoria Street, Singapore
Date: 2 June 2023, Friday & 3 June 2023, Saturday
Time: 8pm
Date: 4 June Sunday
Time: 3pm
Duration: 1hr 30m, intermission TBC
Venue: Drama Centre Theatre
Tickets: $38, $48
POMPEII plays out on a live soundstage, in which the lives of an imagined apartment building’s inhabitants materialise before us. Trapped in a bomb-shelter, a narrator tells us the story of an apartment block in which the lives of its residents were anything but – until a catastrophe reduced them to the inanimate, their lives existing only as object and memory. Exploring the archaeology of intimacy, POMPEII questions if the objects and spaces that we leave behind in death represent that which we were, or betray the true nature that we ourselves denied in life.
Image courtesy of Joseph Nair

The LASALLE Show 2023: Avant Premiere
2023-05-17 19:00 - 22:00 | project X, 2 Handy Rd, #05-01, Singapore 229233, Singapore, Singapore, 229233, Singapore
This year’s graduating films showcase the best fiction and documentary narratives from LASALLE’s BA(Hons) Film programme. AVANT Premiere is a celebration of a multitude of stories ranging from a wide spectrum of landscapes, people and emotions.

Blank in the City (Exhibition) by Sanuki Daisuke Architects
2023-05-17 09:00 - 2023-05-23 16:00 | TOTO Information Center, Tầng 2, tháp 2, Tòa Capital Place, 29 Liễu Giai, Ba Đình, Hanoi, Hanoi, 10000, Vietnam
[+84] introduces the office of Sanuki Daisuke Architects under the theme Blank in the City. The exhibition invites viewers to experience the space authentically designed by the participating architects – the signature of the series [+84].
“We define BLANK as a condition of a space that is free, flexible, and open to all possibilities, and that allows for a variety of people’s activities.”
Event schedule:
– Exhibition: 9:00 – 12:00 & 13:00 – 16:00, May 17th – 23rd, 2023
– Talk: 15:00 – 17:00, May 20th, 2023
Note: Exhibition and Talk’s registration forms will be disclosed on May 5th, 2023

This event is co-hosted by Alab and Toto Information Center (TIC).

An Evening with Claire Keegan
2023-05-14 19:00 - 20:30 | Asian Civilisations Museum, 1 Empress Pl,, Singapore, 179555, Singapore
Join us for an evening with Booker Prize shortlisted writer, Claire Keegan, where Claire will read from her fiction and answer questions about her work and writing life.
This workshop is kindly supported by NTU’s School of Humanities and the National Arts Council.
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ABOUT CLAIRE KEEGAN:
Claire Keegan was raised on a farm on the Wicklow/Wexford border. Her works have won numerous awards and are translated into more than thirty languages. Antarctica won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature. Walk the Blue Fields won the Edge Hill Prize for the finest collection of stories published in the British Isles. Foster, after winning the Davy Byrnes Award — then the world’s richest prize for a story — was chosen by The Times as one of the top 50 works to be published in the 21st Century. It is now part of the school syllabus in Ireland. Her latest, Small Things Like These, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Rathbones Folio Prize. It won the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, the Ambassadors’ Prize for best Irish novel published in France, and The Kerry Prize for Irish Novel of the year. It is now nominated for the Dublin Literary Award, the world’s richest literary prize, which is presented annually for the best novel in the world written or translated into English.
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ABOUT ACWP:
The Asia Creative Writing Programme is a joint initiative funded by the National Arts Council of Singapore and the School of Humanities at Nanyang Technological University.
Leading international and local writers are appointed as Visiting Writers to teach creative writing workshops and masterclasses, as well as mentor and guide emerging, developing and advanced writers in Singapore.
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For more information on the course: https://bit.ly/acwp-ck3
If you have any queries or have problems registering, email us at: soh-ACWP@ntu.edu.sg
Register here: https://bit.ly/acwp-ck3
Deadline for registration: 28 April 2023, Friday, 5 PM.
Registrations may close earlier if all slots have been taken up.
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WHEN:
14 May 2023, Sunday
7:00 pm to 8:30 pm SGT
WHERE:
Asian Civilisations Museum
1 Empress Place, Singapore 179555
WHO:
– For Foundation, Intermediate & Advanced Writers, Students & Educators – especially fiction writers
– Limited places available
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FEES:
– $10 per attendee to secure your seat

Forever | 人长久 Ink Paintings by Tung Yue Nang
2023-05-13 12:00 - 2023-05-28 19:00 | artcommune gallery, 76 Bras Basah Rd, #01-01, Singapore 189558, Singapore, Singapore, 189558, Singapore
artcommune gallery is pleased to present the latest solo exhibition of veteran artist Tung Yue Nang. The show, which is on view at artcommune gallery from 13 to 28 May 2023, features 24 new ink works by the artist, including a momentous and large-scale ink landscape of Chinatown scene measuring 95 x 548 cm.

Born in Singapore in 1959, Tung Yue Nang (邓汝能) cultivated a keen interest for the arts since young. He delved into the formal arts world at the age of 15, when he began learning Chinese painting, calligraphy, seal carving and engraving under the tutelage of pioneer artist-educator, Shi Xiang Tuo. Over the past three decades, his art practice has evolved to encompass Western mediums such as acrylic and mixed media painting, collage, sculpture, and photography. However, the medium of Chinese brush and ink remains the cornerstone of his practice and his immersion in the art form is guided by the Chinese Tao philosophy, which centres on harmony, tranquility and simplicity.
Over the past decade, Tung Yue Nang has established a dynamic ink repertoire that is recognisable for its dramatic and ornate figurative style. These works combine Western compositional techniques with a delicate Chinese brush-and-ink execution to express the unique beauty and richness of our local cultural landscapes. Architectural environments and human figures are related through tremendous accuracy and detail in these dramatically monochrome paintings.

The exhibition title, ‘Forever’, was translated from the artist’s original Chinese title, ‘⼈长久’. The phrase was taken from a famous Song Chinese poem, Prelude to Water Melody (⽔调歌头- 明⽉⼏时有), which was composed by court-official and literati artist-poet Su Shi (also commonly known as Su Dongbo). The poem was written during the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival of 1076 while Su Shi was feeling melancholic and missing his brother, who was a court official stationed in another faraway state.
Su Shi points out in the poem that, ‘People have sorrows, joys, partings and reunions/ Just as the moon turns dark or bright, and waxes or wanes during different phases/ This is but a reality since ancient times/ Yet one hopes that every man enjoys longevity/ Even with thousand miles apart, that we may all see and be connected by the moon’s beauty.’
Through his art and in his own way, Tung Yue Nang seeks to immortalise the unique cultural elements and everyday beauty of our local heritage streets. Every painting is a nuanced display of humanity, and through it he connects the audience with the vitality and immediacy of life. Because his sincere being and profound connection with the landscape flow ever so naturally into the composition, the old buildings with their weathered charms, and folks passing by the streets or engrossed in their daily routines, come alive organically in his works. One is easily transfixed by the fascinating atmosphere of his Singapore riverside, Chinatown or Joo Chiat shophouse scene, where the coming and going of people and their myriad interactions amplify the hustle and bustle of daily life.

STPI X LKCNHM | Traces of Life (Drypoint Etching Workshop)
2023-05-13 10:00 - 12:30 | STPI Creative Workshop & Gallery, 41 Robertson Quay, Singapore, Singapore, 238236, Singapore
In this special collaboration, STPI and Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum invite you to explore the Museum’s specimens and organic materials, and experiment with the drypoint technique. Observe, scratch on a plate and create your own set of prints!

One ticket to this workshop includes one-time admission for one pax to Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (U.P. SGD 21), valid till 27 May 2023.

This workshop will be conducted at STPI Gallery.
Recommended for ages 7 and above.

Raga 2023: ABHIPSAA – A Seeking
2023-05-12 20:00 - 21:30 | Esplanade Theatre Studio, 1 Esplanade Dr, Singapore, 038981, Singapore
Photo credit to Arun Kumar
“A performer of exquisite grace and technique.” – The New Yorker
“[Satpathy] may be five-foot-two, but she dances like a giant.” Marina Harss, Dance Magazine
Mesmerising and immersive, ABHIPSAA – A Seeking charts a personal journey of discovery in physical, emotional, and spiritual realms. In four choreographic works, revered dance doyen Bijayini Satpathy expands the parameters of the formal and representational norms of the odissi tradition through both narrative and non-narrative dances, reimagining classical odissi forms through her own interpretation.

This work was first premiered in Dec 2021 across two sold-out two evenings at Duke Performances. This critical success, a dramatic exploration and reshaping of an ancient tradition, catapulted Satpathy to the forefront of the field. After decades of performance and study, Satpathy calls upon deep kinetic and emotional insights to evolve a revered cultural art form into an entirely modern expression.
This work was made possible with additional funding from the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This presentation at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay marks its Asian debut.

Considered one of the foremost masters of odissi in the world, Bijayini Satpathy has enjoyed a vast career as principal dancer, master teacher, and respected scholar. Renowned the world over for her grace, Satpathy embodies the spirit and profound storytelling of classical Indian dance in a way few others have achieved.
Satpathy has been hailed by the likes of New Yorker, Dance Magazine and international press around the world for her unparalleled artistic expression. Her passion for odissi was instilled at age seven with teachers at Orissa Dance Academy. She is one of the most recognisable names in Indian dance today in large part due to her 25-year career with the famed Nrityagram Dance Ensemble. She studied and perfected odissi with Nrityagram as performer and principal dancer from 1993 to 2018.

In 2021, she was commissioned by Duke University and the Baryshnikov Arts Center for her solo presentation, ABHIPSAA – a seeking, which premiered in New York across two sold out evenings at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, and is currently being toured around the world. She was the Artist-in-Residence with the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the 2021-22 season.
Website: https://www.bijayinisatpathy.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bijayinisatpathy/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063693040832

Red Dot Green Dot 2023
2023-05-12 19:30 - 2023-05-13 21:30 | Lasalle College of the Arts, 1 McNally Street Singapore 187940, Singapore, Singapore, 187940, Singapore
Red Dot Green Dot, a unique arts event celebrating the cultures of Singapore and Ireland, will return to LASALLE College of the Arts on Friday,12 May 2023 and Saturday, 13 May 2023.
First held in 2017, Red Dot Green Dot is an annual arts collaboration organised by LASALLE and The Ireland Funds Singapore, with support from the Embassy of Ireland. Guests can expect music, singing, poetry and prose, drama, all performed by talented artists and alumni from LASALLE College of the Arts and members of the Irish community in Singapore . Each evening will see a range of performances by both solo artists and ensembles, promising an entertaining and fun night to remember.
The event is in support of The McNally Legacy, an initiative funded by The Ireland Funds Singapore. It commemorates the artistic and educational contributions of the late Brother Joseph McNally, founder of LASALLE, and aims to continue the legacy of an Ireland-Singapore partnership through a range of opportunities for a new generation of artists.

Upclose with Brahmastra ft. Sridhar Sena, Meenakshy Jyothish, Sai Vignesh and Alakananda Giridhar
2023-05-12 18:30 - 22:30 | Arpanam Experiences (L2 above Podi and Poriyal), 486 Serangoon Rd, Singapore 218151, Singapore, Singapore, 218151, Singapore
Arpanam Experiences launches its community platform to celebrate local creators of art & culture, inaugurating with this intimate music experience, ’Up Close with Brahmastra.’ Creative Producer & Music Director Niranjan Pandian, Brahmastra brings together local Singaporean artists and Super Singer 8 Champion, Sridhar Sena from India to kick off the launch of the platform.
Sponsored by Naina Mohamed & Sons, this intimate concert for just 30 people will have Singaporean artists, Sai Vignesh, Meenakshy Jyothish and Alakananda Giridhar alongside Sridhar Sena, performing original music and popular Tamil film songs.
The evening promises a wonderful repertoire of music, intimate exchanges with the performing artists and a range of finger food and cocktails / mocktails from Arpanam’s food & beverage offering, Podi & Poriyal.
