September 18, 2019The late filmmaker Yasmin Ahmad’s legacy is undeniable and it lives on, especially when a new generation is now turning to her works for inspiration.
Theatre actress Badrika Bahadur was about seven when she first watched Sepet in 2005, a film she remembers fondly.
“I watched it with my mum. She encouraged me to watch it, saying...
September 17, 2019By ELIM POON
The feelgood buzz surrounding the Malaysia Day celebrations continues with Pos Malaysia's latest stamp series called Makanan Kita, which is available in selected Pos Malaysia outlets nationwide.
The stamps feature an array of local food delights from across the country, including air batu campur (ABC), apam balik, nasi...
September 17, 2019Fazrin Abd Rahman's ability to mix traditional techniques with unusual material has been a constant in his works.
In 2016, the Batu Pahat, Johor-born artist created something unique with his debut solo exhibition called Maze at Taksu Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, where he “contemporised” the traditional art of weaving by using a more...
September 16, 2019Where Malaysian arts and culture is concerned, grassroots communities are leading the way. Here are five voices of the people for the people.
September 14, 2019There's food on the walls of Balai Seni Maybank, and it smiles at you. The Rojak Project, an initiative by social enterprise TRP Creatives, has 49 digital portraits made from local food by workshop participants here. The food spans diverse styles, tastes, cuisines - as diverse as the faces they form.
This series is part of the...
September 14, 2019Compiled by ELIM POON
From a festival held in an old cinema building and a street-level community outreach right to the National Archives of Malaysia exhibiting a series of historical documents in a mall and an open house event packed with arts, music and talks, it looks like there is no shortage of free admission events to make this...
September 13, 2019Leonardo da Vinci's famous mechanical lion on went on display recently in Paris for a month, in a tribute to the Renaissance master 500 years after his death.
The lion, which is 2m high and 3m long and made of wood with a metal mechanism, is a reconstruction based on a rudimentary sketch left by da Vinci.
The original automaton,...
September 12, 2019Robert Frank, a trailblazing documentary photographer whose raw, piercing aesthetic placed him among the 20th century's greats, died on Sept 9, according to his gallery. He was 94 years old.
The Swiss-born photographer rose to fame with the publication of his landmark book The Americans, an unflinching look at US society that proved...
September 12, 2019Sometimes, the smallest decisions can have the largest effects. The most minor changes in our lives, whether we expect them or not, can cause huge ripples that alter your destiny forever.
Meet Roland and Marianne, the main characters of Constellations, by the British playwright Nick Payne.
Roland is a beekeeper, Marianne is a...
September 12, 2019The intricate lines and meticulous attention to detail in Cheong Kiet Cheng’s newest body of work at Wei-Ling Contemporary in Kuala Lumpur might fool you into thinking that a lot of careful planning went into its creation.
But the artist shrugs casually when asked about it, because the thought process, she divulges, could not be...
September 11, 2019The rustling of the wind through trees has replaced the referee's whistle at a football stadium in the Austrian city of Klagenfurt after an unusual art installation was revealed there on Thursday.
Almost the whole pitch of the 32,000-capacity Woerthersee stadium, which hosted some of the fixtures of the Euro 2008 tournament, has been...
September 11, 2019Ballet took Carlos Acosta from the slums of Havana to superstardom on the stages of the world. But when his company Acosta Danza makes its Singapore debut at the Esplanade's da:ns festival next month, it will be Cuban influences that shine brightest.
The annual dance festival by the Esplanade will run from Oct 10-20, with Acosta, who...
September 10, 2019In Icelandic artist Georg Oskar’s own words, it was like getting a knife twisted in his heart. No doubt, many others enjoyed his paintings of a tropical paradise with its eternal sunny days and palm trees swaying in the breeze.
But a university professor described the works as boring.
That was enough to yank Oskar out of his...
September 9, 2019Back in the late 1960s and 1970s, the late Salehudin Mansor, a photographer for a magazine, would go around, taking snapshots of ordinary people and daily life in Kuala Lumpur. He amassed quite a portfolio of these works, which have not gone to waste.
Today, his son, the artist Amar Shahid has decided to pay tribute to his father's...
September 7, 2019Often, when extreme voices get louder and divisive forces pose a sinister threat to pluralism in Malaysia, it is the artists, poets, writers and philosophers of the nation who urgently remind us of who we really are.
Art, in so many ways, is the conscience of a nation.
In the Sama-Sama: Same-Same group exhibition, showing at the...
September 6, 2019The sea breeze in your hair and a folk musician swaying and strumming away as the sun sets on the paddy fields that stretch as far as the eye can see. Feels like a quiet getaway from the city?
Well, this weekend, it won’t be so quiet there.
But a getaway? Yes, please.
The Padi Music Festival will have some 150 local musicians...
September 5, 2019Haffendi Anuar continues to put Malaysia on the map with his artworks. The Kuala Lumpur-based contemporary artist is featured as one of the world's exciting young sculptors in the book 100 Sculptors Of Tomorrow, written by Kurt Beers, the director of London-based Beers gallery.
The book, published by London-based company Thames...
September 5, 2019When Juvita Tatan Wan was a young girl, she spent a lot of time away from her Kenyah community in Sarawak. Due to her father's job in the oil and gas industry, she lived in various cities and towns all across Malaysia.
Her father John Wan Usang, however, always made it a point to travel back to their longhouse in Long San, Baram, near...
September 4, 2019Australian artists Gillie and Marc Schattner have unveiled 10 bronze statues of famous women, including Oprah and Jane Goodall, in an NYC installation to counter the lack of gender equality in public art.
September 3, 2019The 'In Sync' exhibition at the G13 Gallery in Petaling Jaya features a diverse range of contemporary art works from six married artist couples.
September 2, 2019A stage musical project of 'Jungle Book, The Musical' in Penang has given its refugee children cast a chance to gain confidence and a voice in theatre.
September 2, 2019Pangkor Island Festival, which returns for its fifth edition on Sept 13-15, is a pioneering island-based festival where community, culture and arts come to play.
September 1, 2019'Sepet The Musical' leads September's theatre highlights, which also contains an eye-catching ballet performance and a jazz concert that is built to please.
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