DiverseCity, the ongoing exhibition by the Singapore International Foundation, isn’t exactly an exhibition exhibition.
A great part of it really is simply a showcase of the stuff that SIF has supported for the past year by way of travel grants overseas presentation grants. I thought I needed to clarify that because it is at the fourth floor of SAM at 8Q (in contrast to the previous one held at SOTA). Continue reading ‘S’pore Int’l Foundation showcases its DiverseCity’
It’s that time of the year again.
A round of applause for this year’s Cultural Medallion recipients: Atin Amat, artistic director and co-founder of Teater Kami; Yusnor Ef, stalwart lyricist for folks like P Ramlee and Dick Lee; Lim Yew Kuan, painter/educator and ex-NAFA principal; and Kelly Tang, hot shot classical composer.
A shout out too to the “young `uns” who’ve bagged the Young Artist Award: Ang Song Ming, visual artist with the coolest musical taste from this year’s Biennale and Arts Fest; Troy Chin, author/artist for The Resident Tourist graphic novels; Lim Woan Wen, lighting designer wiz; Peter Sau, director/actor/founder of the Kuo Pao Kun-inspired collective Traditions and Editions Theatre Circus; Joshua Tan, conductor extraordinaire; and Nawaz Mohammad Mirajkar, musician/educator and tabla expert.
Particularly pleased that Lim Woan Wen has been recognized and Troy Chin’s award makes that the second year in a row that the comic book genre has been recognised. Congratulations to the winners!
I’ll bet people will be looking very closely at this year’s SAF. Steering it towards a more Asian flavour is already, dare I say, gutsy as it is, but there are other things too that will intrigue.
Unlike previous editions where you pretty much divide the line-up into “free” and “not free” or “cheem” and “mass-appeal”, etc, this one’s curated into five sub-themes that are linked to the fest’s main theme of “I Want To Remember”.
But fest GM Low Kee Hong emphasises that having the word “remember” doesn’t mean nostalgia but “what our relationship is to memory”.
Thank god for that. As much as I’m a sucker for things past, I was getting kind of sick of all the bland “weren’t the `60s just great?” themed stuff that’s been happening for the past year or so.
And then the biggie: no notable “blockbusters”. By that I mean no (living) marquee names. As in zilch for theatre, dance and classical music.
“Big names are not necessarily relevant,” said Low. Continue reading ‘S’pore Arts Fest 2011! Part two! Reasons you should go!’
Anyone realise that from mid-March until the first week of June it’s practically an arts relay race? And I’m just talking about the big events. Two days before the Singapore Biennale 2011 wraps up, the Singapore Arts Festival begins.
Arts lovers should get discounts at New Balance.
SAF11 will run from May 13 to June 5 with the theme “I Want To Remember”. A sort of festival triptych that began last year with “Between You And Me”. Continue reading ‘S’pore Arts Fest 2011! Part one! Asian flava! Local delights!’
Laneway Festival is only happening over the next weekend, but The Substation’s already in music mode.
Right now, there are two unrelated but complementary music-centric/related showcases: Ang Song-Ming’s Sonic Visions and Zai Kuning and Shaiful’s Singular Drone Box. Both are featuring some gigs over the coming two weekends (tonight for instance, Ang’s “hosting” a listening party where they’ll be playing The Flaming Lips’ rare experimental four-channel album Zaireeka; and last night, Zai’s Amino Acid Orchestra also performed at their exhibition’s opening).
As for the ongoing exhibitions, it’s a good two-in-one deal. Continue reading ‘Zai’s rockin’ drawings! Song Ming’s rockin’ CDs!’
Anyone else think the past few days have been the most hectic and most exciting the local visual arts scene has been in ages?
Art Stage Singapore, new (and equally exciting) exhibitions opening elsewhere at SAM (Collectors’ Stage), LASALLE (a solo show by highly influential and extremely low-profile Pinoy artist Chabet – roughly think Tang Da Wu of the Philippines), and The Substation (the first of Ang Song-Ming’s Sonic Visions series this month – including an effin’ Zaireeka listening party next week!) – which tonight also hosted this year’s first Rooted In The Ephemeral Speak performance art session. Not to mention the open-houses at LASALLE and NAFA. Did I miss out on anything?
Not everything was hunky dory though. Sensationalist journalism reared its ugly head once more, with two newspapers (including that notorious tabloid – not tabloid-sized newspaper because TODAY kicks ass) kicking up a fuss over one of the pieces at Art Stage where one can get his/her photo taken with a nude dude. Like, come on, seriously?
A group show at Post-Museum, The Pearly Gates, with its extremely graphic content apparently had the authorities knocking on their doors earlier today after some complaints from anonymous prudish public (which was settled when it was explained that it was an exhibition of works for sale).
It seems like if controversial art is shown within the context of some money changing hands, like in Art Stage’s nudie boy, it’s okay? Hah.
Unfortunately, the RITES event wasn’t so lucky. One of the participants, activist artist Seelan Palay, wasn’t given the go-signal to perform.
Dude, maybe next time, you should tie a price tag on your left toe. That’d solve everything — and it’s ironic too.
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Admittedly, I hadn’t had time to catch all of these. But I finally got to go to this year’s Open House (which I missed last year).
Continue reading ‘Open House! Money talks! Performance art doesn’t?! A crazy week!’
