Front Row

Artist Dhavinder Singh grew up in the old industrial area of Jalan Chan Sow Lin in Kuala Lumpur, surrounded by a community of workers from various factories and workshops. But he has since seen the area transformed by excessive development into one of the heaviest reconstruction sites in the city, filled with squatter homes and abandoned buildings. In his latest exhibition called “Tagistan&r...

An art exhibition called “Look East Gone West” brings Singaporean artist Ho Rui An’s work to Southeast Asia for the first time, with video installations and films that examine the so-called East Asian miracle, global capitalism, and the divisions between east and west. We speak with artist Rui An, and curator Kathleen Ditzig about research-based art, and how these works feel more...

Five galleries around Kuala Lumpur are coming together to feature five different artists in a joint exhibition taking place in five spaces around the city - called Art Gallery Weekend 2020 Right Here Right Now. Jointly organised by The Back Room KL, Artemis Art, Richard Koh Fine Art, Suma Orientalis and Core Design Gallery, the initiative aims to revive the experience of visiting art galleries and...

Launched in 2016, Singapore-based ArtsEquator is one of the few - if not only - media platforms that cover arts and culture in Southeast Asia. In the short time since its inception, the platform has garnered much praise for its arts coverage and long-form criticism. However, with its seed grant coming to an end, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, financial support has dried up, and ArtsEquator face...

In this exhibition, Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice serves as the inspiration for artworks that take on a decidedly modern and Asian air, with a focus on facial expressions and body language. We speak with the artist, Najib Ahmad Bamadhaj, about why he was drawn to this literary theme, and what it has to say about today. Image Source:  Najib Ahmad Bamadhaj See omnystudio.com/lis...

Malaysian artist Anurendra Jegadeva is currently living in Melbourne, Australia, and has spent the last 6 months in lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic - an apt time to create a series of paintings that look at the global pandemic and how we deal with it, personally, socially, and politically. Featuring paintings of dynamic figures in gas masks, isolated individuals, and mundane domestic det...

Though conceived before the global pandemic, Louise Low’s exhibition “Mass Against Mass” seems apt for our current time, with its themes of individual actions, collective influence, and how the both are intertwined. Using painted images and collages, Low’s works focus on faces and facial expressions, to contemplate on what it means to be free within a society. We speak with...

Textile arts are often associated largely with traditional crafts like batik or weaving. Contemporary textile art practices, however, go far beyond this to encompass both the heritage of the form, while also innovating and using them to engage with current cultural and sociopolitical concerns. An exhibition called Common Threads looks at how the art form is evolving in Malaysia, and regardless of...

One of the many industries hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Movement Control Order has been the arts - with public events, gatherings, and opportunities for travel being limited, many arts practitioners have been struggling to both create art and to make a living. This situation is further exacerbated in Sabah and Sarawak, where the lack of access, connectivity, and accessibility affects...

The Theatre for Young People (T4YP) programme by Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac) has been around since 2008, and has trained and mentored 153 young theatre practitioners over the years. During a year that has been particularly difficult for theatremakers, KLPac is providing a platform for the programme’s alumni, by staging a show that taps into what they have learnt, and allows t...

The past year has been a period of reflection and introspection for many of us, and artist Peisy Ting is no exception. She was ready to debut her solo art exhibition earlier in the year, only to have it postponed for months due to the Movement Control Order. But in many ways, her exhibition, titled Transcendence – A Visual Exploration of Self, seems more fitting now than ever. We speak with...

Even three decades after his death, American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s legacy in the contemporary art world continues to resonate, thanks to his unique approach to art and the powerful themes of social justice. This year, 2020, would have been his 60th birthday, and Artemis Art gallery is celebrating Basquiat by having two shows honouring his works and legacy. The first is called Convers...

When it comes to the world of theatre, plays by women are still under-represented - both globally and here in Malaysia. In places like the UK and US, it is estimated that only a quarter of theatre productions being staged are written by women. And tellingly, many plays by women are not even known to most audiences or in some cases, theatremakers. So in a quest to correct this imbalance, local thea...

The story of the Malaysian arts is often a story of migration: art forms that journeyed from other countries and cultures to find a home here, to evolve in their own unique ways. In conjunction with this year's Merdeka and Malaysia Day celebrations, we explore the histories and  journeys of some of these art forms, and how they became a part of Malaysian culture. Image Source: PUSAKA See omny...

In this age of being able to take and store thousands of photographs with ease, it is quite easy to overlook the unique position photographs have had throughout the history of their existence, particularly in terms of photography’s cultural significance. An ongoing exhibition at Ilham Gallery, called “Bayangnya Itu Timbul Tenggelam - Photographic Cultures in Malaysia” aims to cap...

The past few months have seen many artsmakers and creatives taking to the online space as a way to show their works, thanks to COVID-19. Capitalising on this, A+ Gallery is debuting its inaugural Online Festival of Video Art, featuring a whole month of works that each explore the potential of video art. The festival is from the 1st of August to the 12th of September, with new selections being unve...

After nearly 4 months of not being able to perform, Dancebox August 2020 is back to present 10 new dance works from emerging and established choreographers. And it looks to be an interesting mix of everything ranging from Indian classical dance to contemporary. We speak with one of the featured dancers, Hwa Wei-An, about how he has been reinterpreting notions of falling and freeriding into his dan...

A group art exhibition called “She Who Is Watching” aims to explore and complicate the position of women and artists as observers. Six international female artists - from Indonesia, Turkey, Algeria, Lebanon, Iran, and Germany -  share their works and points of view on issues like gender, discrimination, migration, and ecology. We speak with three different artists to understand wh...

The Other Hundred is a global photography initiative that aims to challenge stereotypes by highlighting people, places, and cultures that are often overlooked by major media. The initiative, which was started by the Global Institute of Tomorrow, brings together 100 photo stories by photographers around the world through an open call for entries, and currently, it’s on its fourth edition For...

The annual Bangkok International Performing Arts Meeting (BIPAM) is adapting to current times by presenting a series of webinars entitled "Under the SEA: Neighborly Talks on the Performing Arts in the Time of COVID-19”. The series aims to bring together arts practitioners and experts from the 11 countries in Southeast Asia, to familiarise each other with the regional arts scene, as well as t...

As the local performing arts try to figure out how to move forward from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies are trying various new initiatives that take into account this “New Normal” - which includes many virtual efforts. The Kwang Tung Dance Company is presenting a fundraising project called “Merentas Awan” from July to December 2020, which uses photograp...

If you were a Malaysian theatregoer back in 2011, you’d remember the sensation created by Parah. A play written by Singaporean playwright Alfian Saat, it was inspired by the then-protest over the Malay-language novel Interlok by a Hindu rights group. The play went on to win many accolades, and has been restaged seven times. Now, in keeping with this “New Normal”, the Instant Cafe...

With Malaysia currently under the Recovery Movement Control Order, the performing arts scene is slowly beginning to stage shows again. And they are trying various ways to make this work while still complying with the SOPs provided by the government. For percussion ensemble Hands Percussion Malaysia, this involves presenting their first live-streamed show, called Reflections, in collaboration with...

Artist CC Kua’s arts residency at Rimbun Dahan was an unexpectedly isolated one as the Movement Control Order came into place. So she spent her time allowing her thoughts to run playfully unrestrained amidst the lush tropical rainforest garden, while simultaneously dealing with the anxiety of being amidst the global pandemic. All of these are captured with a sense of humour and whimsy in the...

After months of staying indoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, how can we reconnect with the cities we live in? The Sound of X project by Goethe-Institut might have an answer: by using the sounds, noises and acoustics of our urban environments to rediscover the stories they have to tell. The project gathers sound artists from Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand to present works that attempt t...