Zalila Lee at Merdekarya, 6 June, 9pm Singer-songwriter Zalila Lee returns to Merdekarya. This performer is a versatile talent, but for her solo performances, you can generally expect folk-blues with a boom voice and soul cutting lyrics. The show starts at 9pm, but open mic may begin before. There is no cover charge at Merdekarya, […]
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (4–10 June 2018) Read More »
Duration: 21 minutes Latest in our Fresh Blood series, the spotlight is on Split Theatre, a feisty young outfit that is staging their third production “Fourteen” on 8 June at Centre 42 Black Box. We chat with director Darryl Lim, actor Elizabeth Samosir and production manager Chia Xin Ying about how they met, what “Fourteen”
Podcast 41: Split Theatre’s “Fourteen” Read More »
The exhibition Amek Gambar: Peranakans and Photography at Singapore’s Peranakan Museum (from May 5 to Feb 3 2019) is a rare glimpse into the very first and early days of the history of photography in Singapore through the lens of the peranakans — an ethnic group of mixed race Malay–Chinese with a richly distinctive culture, e.g. costumes (usually involving kebayas and
The History of Photography in Singapore Through Peranakan Eyes (via Invisible Flaneuse) Read More »
This article is republished from the Singapore International Film Festival editorial. It is part of New Waves 2018, an annual series of screenings and dialogues with regional filmmakers. For this third edition of the New Waves series, SGIFF invites participants the festival’s Youth Jury and Critics’ programme to offer an introductory analysis on the four
Sentiments of Space: Reading Between the Frames of Don Aravind Read More »
25th Singapore International Piano Festival by Singapore Symphony Orchestra, 7-13 June 2018 This year’s celebration brings in six phenomenal virtuoso pianists from across Asia, Europe and the Americas. All six pianists will present varied, colourful programmes in The Singapore International Piano Festival for their 25th anniversary with a variety of works from Mozart, Beethoven,
Weekly Picks: Singapore (4 – 10 June 2018) Read More »
By Chloe Chotrani (990 words, 4-minute read) Garden Uprooted is a performance work drawing from nature as the source, a collaboration with The Philharmonic Orchestra Singapore and The Arts Fission Company. Subtle tonalities slowly seep into the theatre, and contradicting erratic yet fluid movements in space and time. Throughout Garden Uprooted is nature-inspired music by
“Garden Uprooted”: Fluctuations of Silence Read More »
Lim Chin Huat shares about his journey of learning one artistic discipline after another, his approach to creating work, his struggle with calling himself an artist, and how his current project In Her Hands traces its origins back to more than ten years ago. He currently teaches movement full-time at the Intercultural Theatre Institute. CH: I was a science
Lim Chin Huat and Negotiating Positionalities across Time (via Talking Circles) Read More »
StoryFest: International Storytelling Festival Singapore, The Arts House, 1-3 June 2018 Come and listen to tales both old and new from Singapore and around the world at StoryFest 2018. StoryFest is back for their second edition this year with the theme Be Legendary. The festival that is happening from 1-3 June at the Arts House features a
Weekly Picks: Singapore (28 May – 3 June 2018) Read More »
By Lainie Yeoh The Narrow Bridge (film screening), at HELP College, 28 May, 8pm Kelab Seni Filem Malaysia and Wayang Budiman are presenting a screening of Indonesian drama The Narrow Bridge. The film is directed by Chaerul Umam, and follows the story of a young Islamic teacher sent to work in a village full of
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (28 May – 3 June 2018) Read More »
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Yogyakarta and Jakarta from 28 May – 3 June 2018 It’s a brand new week and we’re bringing you a variety of selections of art events in Indonesia that are happening this week! Stories and storytelling are integral parts of various cultures. The Javanese culture is one
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (28 May – 3 June 2018) Read More »
Famous Korean artist Park Jin Woo and three other Korean artists (Chong Eun Mi, Nam Yeo Joo and Kwon Young Sil) held a 3-day exhibition, from 20 to 23 May. They showed their amazing art works at The Yangon Gallery. Their creations are very different from what the Myanmar audience is used to. Each had
K-paint in Myanmar: Four Korean artists on show at Yangon Gallery (via Myanmar Times) Read More »
For artist Sohieb Toyaroja, Semar is his favorite jester in Javanese mythology because the character is divine and very wise. Semar, one of four famous punakawan (jesters), has three sons: Petruk, Gareng and Bagong. Each has a different form, representing different philosophical characteristics of human beings. In Javanese wayang (shadow puppetry) stories, Semar is portrayed as a powerful figure,
Semar in the eyes of Sohieb Toyaroja (via The Jakarta Post) Read More »
By Daniel Teo (1340 words, six-minute read) In Pissed Julie, the magic number is three. The play begins with a row of three chairs, dwarfed by a succession of three enormous three-sided wooden frames. The actors emerge from the darkness and dance to a waltz in triple metre. And, in this bold adaptation of August
Nine Years Theatre’s “Pissed Julie 茱莉小解”: Third Wheelings Read More »
Seven-piece band The Venopian Solitude is set to become the first Malaysian band ever to perform at Sónar! For those who’re in the dark, Sónar is a three-day electronic and advanced music festival which was started in Barcelona, Spain in 1994 by music journalist Ricard Robles and musicians cum visual artists Enric Palau and Sergio Caballero.
Malaysian Band To Perform At Europe’s Biggest Electronic Music Fest! (via Eksentrika) Read More »
By Elaine Chiew (1,600 words, eight-minute read) Art historian Patrick Flores first addressed the phenomenon of the artist-curator in his seminal essay Turns in Tropics [1] as someone who holds a certain power and who has become a key figure in shaping the art history of contemporary Southeast Asian art. Manit Sriwanichpoom’s exhibition Rediscovering Forgotten
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Bali from 21 – 27 May 2018 If you feel like catching some films on Tuesday night, head to Goethehaus in Jakarta to catch Indentitas, a screening of 5 Indonesian short films. The five films screened are Along the One Way by Bani Nasution, On
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (21 – 27 May 2018) Read More »
Visual Amek Gambar (Taking Pictures) – Peranakans and Photography by Peranakan Museum 5 May – Sun 3 Feb 2019 This exhibition displays the lives of Peranakans across Southeast Asia through a large collection of photographs. The role of photography was evident as Peranakans took advantage of this visual art form over the last 160 years. From
Weekly Picks: Singapore (21 – 27 May 2018) Read More »
By Lainie Yeoh NINE Theatre Festival, at Sunway University Rooftop Theatre, 21 & 22 May The students from the Diploma in Performing Arts 2016 of Sunway University offer a wide selection of staged performances, readings, and site-specific installations in this festival. The themes explored are Love, Time & Death. Individual shows are RM15, a festival
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (21 – 27 May 2018) Read More »
Seelan Palay, a local artist, has been charged by the Attorney-General’s Chambers for participating in a public procession from Hong Lim Park to the National Gallery, and to the Parliament House on 1 October 2017. It is written in the charge sheet that the public procession is to publicise the cause of “the illegal detention
Spoiler Alert: If you’re planning to watch Underclass, please note that this review discusses certain plot points. By Corrie Tan (2,200 words, 11-minute read) You know that auntie. You’ve waved her off at the hawker centre, or maybe you’ve apologised, under your breath, because “I already have tissue”. You’ve plotted paths of avoidance around her
“Underclass” twists the knife in your middle-class guilt Read More »
“These are not the places we discussed, nor I wanted to go,” Singaporean photographer Billy Mork exclaimed in exasperation to his Bhutanese guide. Mork had just flown via the Royal Bhutan airline and landed at the taciturn kingdom’s Paro Airport. The guide picked him up and amiably brought him to take in some of the town’s famed tourist sites. Upon
By Nabilah Said (2,220 words, 11-minute read) Had Malaysian artist-poet Latiff Mohidin been French, he might perhaps strongly identify with the idea of the flâneur. Coined by French poet Charles Baudelaire, the French word for someone who strolls in the city found cachet as a description of the artist-poet who drew inspiration from the city
Making Our Own Centres (Of) Ourselves: Latiff Mohidin’s “Pago Pago (1960-1969)” Read More »
Whenever he returns from a foreign country, Khin Zaw Latt feels unwell with frustration. He feels sick, but not because of Zika or SARS, but at the drought of art in his country. Art museums and communities in countries like the United States, France, Singapore, and Indonesia where he has been make him realize what
Artist strives to develop Myanmar art scene (via The Irrawady) Read More »
Performing a dance in red stilettos is not allowed at Angkor Archaeological Park, but that’s not stopping Khun Sreynoch from working on it. As members of Cambodia’s first contemporary dance company, Ms. Sreynoch and her closest colleagues have known each other since they were children studying Cambodian classical dance, or Apsara. But in fusing old
One might argue that we are entering the new golden era of Indonesian cinema. For the first time in the history of post-Reformation cinema, in two consecutive calendar years, the boxoffice top ten are fully dominated by films with more than one million viewers. In 2016 Anggy Umbara’s Warkop DKI Reborn: Jangkrik Boss! Part 1 took the pole position
6am is a pretty unremarkable time. It’s the time Singaporean students are woken up by alarm clocks or family members, blearily rubbing the sleep from their eyes to prepare for another school day. It’s the time people start making breakfast or getting ready for work. It’s that quiet, dim hour before the sun rises over
Voices on Death Row: GroundZ-0’s “0600” at SIFA 2018 Read More »
Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Jakarta and Bali from 14 – 20 May 2018 Komunitas Salihara is organizing a lecture on the 15th of May 2018 titled 20 Tahun Reformasi: Majukah Rasionalitas dan Budaya Ilmiah Kita? The talk looks at how after 2 decades of reformation, Indonesia is still dealing with basic primordial
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (14 – 20 May 2018) Read More »
Pissed Julie by Nine Years Theatre, KC Arts Centre – Home of SRT, 17 – 20 May Nine Years Theatre’s rendition of August Strindberg’s Mies Julie brings the 19th century European tale head to head with the concerns of 21st century post-colonial Asian cities. This production is born from a collaboration between the Singaporean theatre
Weekly Picks: Singapore (14 – 20 May 2018) Read More »
By Lainie Yeoh Majlis Himpunan Warga Seni PH (Pakatan Harapan), Auditorium MATIC, 15 May 3pm Despite the name (Assembly of Artists PH), this is not officially sanctioned by Pakatan Harapan, nor does it seem to be organised by Pakatan Harapan supporters (although political allegiances in the arts have been tenuous lately, so who knows). This
Weekly Picks: Malaysia (14 May – 20 May 2018) Read More »
‘Some people asked me why I didn’t paint Lord Rama [Phra Ram from the Ramakien epic] green,” said 88-year-old Aree Soothipunt in his husky voice, pointing to his abstract painting from the late 70s of a blue-skinned Rama. “The literature never specified that he was green. Anyone who said he’s supposed to be green can walk
Art is for everyone: Aree Soothipunt (via Bangkok Post) Read More »
