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.
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 …
Podcasts are more prominent today, especially in the arts and culture industry. Bernice Soh covers the growth of podcasts in Singapore, and how podcasters today are engaging with their audiences. Podcasts are everywhere these days. You can talk about almost anything in a podcast, from social issues and political events to conspiracy theories and celebrity …
How Art And Culture Podcasts Are Sweeping Through Singapore Read More »
Tracing Latencies is a hybrid group exhibition of the Culture | Smart City project, held from 3 March to 3 April 2022 at 136 GOETHE LAB. It is part of the Culture | Smart City project, a multidisciplinary collaborative initiative by EUNIC Cluster Singapore, under the guidance of Goethe-Institut Singapore. This mixed-media, multi-sensory exhibition presents …
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 »
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 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 this month’s Cakap-Cakap (chit-chat), ArtsEquator speaks with visual artist Anaïs López about her multimedia exhibition The Migrant which is currently showing at the Chapel Gallery, Objectifs. Through audio, video, text and photography, López discusses migration, urbanisation and human-animal relationships through the character of the ubiquitous Javan mynah and its evolving place in Southeast Asia, …
Cakap-Cakap: Interview with Anaïs López for The Migrant Read More »
“People always see us artists as cool. They think we paint on the streets, make big money, no need to study one. Ask them to try lah! We work for hours in the hot sun. And you need strong fingers to hold the can.” Artist ANTZ was working on a boom lift on the side …
Mixtape: The Millennial, The Zoomer and The Spray Can Read More »
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 event with so much content – 100 events across both physical and digital spaces featuring over 300 Singaporean and international artists, all …
A Malaysian under lockdown reviews Singapore Art Week 2021 Read More »
Translation by Eka Wahyuni In one corner of West Java, Indonesia, in the Majalengka Regency, a group of volunteers work hand in hand to distribute Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), groceries, food, and medical equipment to people who have to work outside the home during the Covid-19 pandemic. These volunteers were the Relawan Jabar Baik (West …
Jatiwangi Art Factory: Cultural work that breaks the mould Read More »
On a rainy evening towards the end of May 2020, it seemed like Saigon’s most dapper guys and modish gals all flocked to Galerie Quynh. What was buzzing inside the gallery’s three-storey space was a new exhibition titled “Lunar Breccia”, featuring new works by Hoang Duong Cam, Do Thanh Lang, Sandrine Llouquet, Vo Tran Chau, …
Artist Sam Lo gained notoriety in 2012 after getting arrested for stencilling the phrase ‘My Grandfather Road’ on a public road. The incident was highly publicised, leading to debates about the line between vandalism and creative expression. Now, eight years later, Sam is featured in a micro-documentary, produced by online visual magazine Not Safe For TV, …
Artist Sam Lo gained notoriety in 2012 after getting arrested for stencilling the phrase ‘My Grandfather Road’ on a public road. The incident was highly publicised, leading to debates about the line between vandalism and creative expression, and the monicker of ‘Sticker Lady’ (a name derived from the circular stickers they had pasted on traffic …
By Nabilah Said (1,400 words, 7-minute read) “You’re a guest, you’re a guest, you’re a guest.” This anodyne version of the Beauty and The Beast song played in my head as I walked through the exhibition The Body Politic and the Body, currently on at ILHAM Gallery in Kuala Lumpur. For a show referencing the …
Everything In Its Right Place: The Body Politic and the Body Read More »
Contemporary visual art exhibition the Singapore Biennale 2019 will return on 22 November with Every Step In The Right Direction, featuring artworks by over 70 artists from Singapore, Southeast Asia and beyond. In the lead-up to the opening of the sixth edition, Lee Weng Choy speaks with artistic director Patrick Flores, and curators Andrea Fam, …
Singapore Biennale 2019: Interview with artistic director and curators Read More »
By Teo Xiao Ting (1,414 words, 6-minute read) A vivacious viscous zoo swirling with prestige and art, the Venice Biennale spins me exhausted after 45 days. When I was asked to write about the Southeast Asian artworks I’ve encountered here, a lingering sense of lightheartedness arose, lilting humour almost dry. There is humour, uncanny warmth …
Contortions and Gentle Songs: SEA at Venice Biennale Read More »
By Syed Muhammad Hafiz (1,823 words, 7-minute read) Recently I was asked by a friend, “How come I don’t see any local Malay artists in the current show at National Gallery Singapore (NGS)?”. My immediate response was, of course, that it simply wasn’t true. I was thrown off-guard, but then I started asking myself what …
Editor’s note: This is a transcript of a podcast recording which cannot be shared due to poor audio quality. It has been lightly edited for clarity. ArtsEquator (AE): Hello everyone. Welcome to the ArtsEquator podcast. My name is Nabilah Said, I am the editor of ArtsEquator and this is my first time hosting our podcast. I’m …
“MAT” at Objectifs: Pluralisms, perceptions and podcast failings Read More »
By Nabilah Said (1,000 words, 6-minute read) My friends that have visited Singapore in recent times have been given the following non-food recommendations by me: I point them to Haw Par Villa for its wonderfully macabre dreamscapes of punitive Asian values, and then suggest they drop by National Gallery Singapore for the art contained within …
Staying woke: “Awakenings” at National Gallery Singapore Read More »
As alumni of the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA) returned to retrieve paintings they had made for their assignments, a well-known Cambodian photographer spotted one of his among the pile. In a picture posted on Facebook, Mak Remissa, who is known for his photography work for the European Press Agency (EPA) and Cambodge Soir, …
Famous photographer finds his old painting (via The Phnom Penh Post) 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 »
‘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 »
