By Kathy Rowland (529 words, 5 minute read) Solo Rites: Seven Breaths by Jen Shyu, a highly acclaimed experimental jazz vocalist from the US, was staged at the Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama on 14 February 2017. Shyu, who is of East Timor-Taiwanese ancestry, has spent years conducting research and learning the traditional musical and […]
Solo Rites: Asian Degustation Menu Causes Indigestion Read More »
“Eko Supriyanto’s internationally travelled Cry Jailolo featured in the Darwin Festival and Adelaide’s OzAsia in 2016, in this year’s Sydney Festival and will appear shortly in Brisbane’s new Supercell Dance Festival and Melbourne’s Asia TOPA, a three-month celebration of Asian and South-East Asian performing arts. Also in the Sydney Festival was the premiere of Balabala,
Written by Liza Magtoto with music by Vince de Jesus and directed by Maribel Legarda, The Care Divas revolves around the struggle of five Filipino caregivers in Israel. However, this struggle is a mere background to the real struggle with their sexual identities as bakla (Filipino gay men) in this predominantly Jewish nation. (Read more
PETA’s “The Care Divas” and the Ethics of Care Read More »
5. IF YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND SINGAPORE, JUST WATCH HIS PLAYS That statement may sound a bit presumptuous, but there’s a grain of truth to it. After all, Sharma has written more than a hundred plays since the late 1980s, many of which have become classics, published in books, taught in schools, and staged and
Understanding Haresh Sharma: 5 things to know about Singapore’s premier playwright Read More »
Top Picks in Jakarta, Bandung, and Bali 13-19 March 2017 JAKARTA Fast Fashion – The Dark Side of Fashion, Now – 9 April 2017, Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem, Jakarta Presented as part of Goethe Institut Indoesia IKAT/eCUT project, Fast Fashion – The Dark Side of Fashion, invites audiences to view the textile and fashion industry, as
13 – 19 March 2017: Indonesia Read More »
By Akanksha Raja (630 words, 6-minute read) Penned by writer Goh Boon Teck, Prism was conceived in 2003 under a commission by Japanese theatre company Kageboushi, to become a grand-scale million-dollar touring production with performers from six Asian countries, featuring a variety of Asian artforms (such as martial arts and gamelan music). Essentially, Prism tells
Toy Factory’s “Prism” refracts social reality Read More »
The Vault: Becoming Mother, 19 Mar, 4pm, Centre 42 Dance practitioners and researchers Dr. Nidya Shanthini Manokara and Jocelyn Chng investigate motherhood in its various manifestations – from creating life to producing creative work. Grounded in their dance practices of bharatanatyam and ballet respectively, Shanthini and Jocelyn respond to themes of creation and creativity in
13 – 19 March 2017: Singapore Read More »
“And leaving gold in a public area–of course it would be bait. Not so much for thieves, but the ensuing discourse, already overdetermined, of whether it was authorised, legal, permissible, safe. MP’s and Town Council officials weighing in, sandpapering the gold with their pronouncements more than the slipper-soles of the residents who actually use the
Staircase artwork by Singaporean Priyageetha Dia depicts a reverse-Midas scenario Read More »
Earlier today Malaysian landscape architect, Ng Sek San uploaded several images of Pangrok Sulap’s artwork, a collective of woodcut print pieces that had been removed from an exhibition for being err… too sediyes. To read the rest of this article click here. Tags: censorship
How Sensitive is this Banner Artwork by Pangrok Sulap, Really? Read More »
Oleh Shahrul Mizad Ashari dan Fasyali Fadzly (774 patah kata, 10 minit bacaan) Rohani Yousoff atau lebih senang dipanggil dengan Kak Ani bagi penggiat teater merupakan salah seorang tokoh teater terpenting negara. Sumbangannya tidak terhad dalam bidang teater praktik tetapi juga dalam bidang akademik. Beliau yang merupakan rakan seangkatan Ahmad Yatim, Faridah Merican, Rahim Razali
Belasungkawa Rohani Yousoff: Pentas, Kelas dan Kertas Read More »
Don’t all Biennales compete with the cities they are sited in? It’s certainly true of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale in Kerala, a state located on the south-western coast of India. Set largely in the increasingly gentrified Fort Kochi, the biennale also takes on the additional name of a first A.D. port identified in Greco-Roman and Tamil
Kochi: the City and its Biennale Read More »
Dulaang UP’s current production, Rody Vera’s Filipino adaptation of Faust, directed by José Estrella, at once seeks to stay true to the spirit of and attempts to contemporize Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s famous Manichean drama that was resolutely rooted in the Romantic vision of its own time.
Cosmologizing Social Evil in Dulaang Up’s “Faust” Read More »
In many of Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s films, the membrane that separates dream from reality is a porous one. In Syndromes And A Century, snatches of dialogue are repeated, with slight variations, as if to recreate the sensation of déjà vu. In Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, a long lost son returns
Warming Up to Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s ‘Fever Room’ Read More »
Duration: 21 minutes Dance practitioners and educators Stephanie Burridge and Susan Sentler discuss Cloud Gate 2‘s A Triple Bill, including the interplay of music and choreography, references to Martha Graham’s aesthetics, and the many ways bodies can “carve the architecture of a space”. Cameo mentions of other dance groups and productions in this podcast review
Podcast 11: Cloud Gate 2, “A Triple Bill” Read More »
Family Secrets – A Date With Friends 2017 by The Necessary Stage, 10-12 Mar, Esplanade Theatre Studio The Necessary Stage’s Theatre for Seniors presents Family Secrets, a double bill of well-loved plays by Cultural Medallion winner Haresh Sharma, about two families encountering change through illness afflicting their senior members, and how they rise above the challenge
6 – 12 March 2017: Singapore Read More »
For the first time, this year’s edition will be held in the spring, where Eloy expects it to remain in coming years. The lineup is an intoxicating mix of local and regional films, with Western offerings sprinkled throughout, as well as a celebration of local music, arts and dance. Because of the range of films,
The Phnom Penh Post Guide to the Cambodia International Film Festival Read More »
Top Picks in Jakarta and Bandung 6-12 March 2017 JAKARTA Of Horizon Landscape, 6 March 2017, 7 PM, Hall B – Gudang Sarinah Ekosistem, Jakarta Of Horizon Landscape is a performance art by artists involved in the 69 Performance Club, a study platform for performance art created by Forum Lenteng. A landscape can be
6 – 12 March 2017: Indonesia Read More »
Graffiti in Cambodia has not historically been very common, but that’s changing fast due to the city’s relatively young and increasingly urban and networked population. While many tags are done by people passing through or immigrants who live here, locals are discovering the joys and thrills of tagging as well. Nowhere can you see this more
Graffiti and Street Art Thrive In a Rundown Phnom Penh Neighborhood Read More »
Singapore-based dancer-choreographer and scholar Stephanie Burridge is anxiously awaiting the proofs for her tenth book, but she’ll find time to fly into Canberra for a big dance summit.
This is the second of a two-part essay on origins and rise of biennales within the context of Malaysia’s aspirations for a world-class international visual art mega-exhibition. Read Part I here. Part II Increasing scholarly focus has been directed on the biennale trend over the past two decades, along with the rise in prominence of
To Biennale or Not To Biennale (Part II) Read More »
‘The Cave’, a converted bar and restaurant that is the venue for the performance of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts, is small. Audiences sit on three sides, around five persons abreast, ever mindful that to stretch their legs would be to trespass into the performance area. How does one perform Ghosts in such a space, with its
Review: Theatre Company shelf’s “GHOSTS-COMPOSITION/IBSEN” Read More »
ExxonMobil Campus Concerts – Alfaaz, NUS University Cultural Centre, 1 March, 8pm Alfaaz (n.): Urdu for spoken word; the distinguishing factor that makes us undeniably human. Words shape us, unite us and yet at the same time, divide us. Much like humanity, language constantly evolves. The complexity and sense of poetry of years past have
27 Feb – 5 Mar 2017: Singapore Read More »
By Kathy Rowland (1484 words, 15-minute read) The Tokyo Performing Arts Market (TPAM) was established in 1995. In 2011, TPAM moved to the City of Yokohama, re-branding as the Performing Arts Meeting in Yokohama. The shift of location also signalled a realignment, from showcase to co-presenting, with a specific focus on Asia. Over the past
Yokohama’s Creative City: Interview with Kozue Nakayama Read More »
By Kathy Rowland (930 words, 8-minute read) On Tuesday, 21 February, the Boston Globe published an article headlined “Ex-teacher molested pupils, Milton Academy says”, linking Rey Buono to sexual abuse of minors in the US in the 1980s. By the next day, the news had spread to Singapore and Malaysia, causing shock and alarm amongst
SEA-based Theatre Educator Accused of Sexual Abuse of Minors in the US Read More »
This is the first of a two-part essay on origins and rise of biennales within the context of Malaysia’s aspirations for a world-class international visual art mega-exhibition. Read Part II here. Part I News that Kuala Lumpur will stage its first biennale in November this year have been circulating amongst Malaysian art insiders since 2015.
To Biennale or Not To Biennale (Part I) Read More »
By Akanksha Raja (1500 words, 15-minute read) There is a distinctive break made between the modern, sans-serif typeface of the word “Artist” and the classical serif typeface of the word “Empire” in the title/publicity material of the National Gallery Singapore’s reinterpretation of the 2015 Tate Modern’s exhibition “Artist and Empire”. The typographical split signifies a
Empire Strikes Back: “Artist and Empire: (En)countering Colonial Legacies” Read More »
In a heated political climate, art turns radical in order to address the struggles of a society always at the cusp of a social upheaval. Art Fair Philippines 2017 highlights the work of social realists, inviting audiences to reevaluate the role of art in their daily lives. Tags: Art Fair Philippines CNN Philippines Political Art Politics
The Case for Political Art in a Post-Truth Age Read More »
Poklong Anading is a 41-year-old Filipino artist with an unruly mop of hair and an extremely diffident manner. Featured in the “No Chaos, No Party: 28 Artists in Metro Manila” book (a project by Valeria Cavestany edited by Eva McGovern-Basa) and also participating in the ongoing 2017 Art Fair Philippines, Poklong has emerged as one the
Manila’s Poklong Anading: Chaos, Junk and Art Read More »
Indices of Vanishment by RAW Moves, 23 – 25 Feb, 8pm, Aliwal Arts Centre Choreographed by Edith Podesta, Lighting Design by Adrian Tan, Sound Design by Teo Wee Boon and performed by RAW Moves Company Dancers, Indices of Vanishment is the 2017 edition of RAW Moves’ annual Repertory Platform. Indices of Vanishment is a movement performance that examines
20 – 26 February 2017: Singapore Read More »
