Arts

Aimed to address waste decadence in Singapore and Asia, this year’s IKEA Singapore’s Young Designer Award (IKEA YDA) challenged students to propose and develop design innovations across four major waste streams – food, plastics, paper or packaging, and e-waste. Held at The Red Box on 1 July 2019 (Monday), the Grand Finale of IKEA YDA 2019 saw the Top 20 finalists from across Singapore’s tertiary institutions make their final pitch to the judges in hopes of emerging as the winner. Ms Bee Lian Soh, Head of Sustainability at IKEA Southeast Asia. “The ideas submitted and presented by the students this…

An unabashed, raw portrayal of rave parties, Crowd was held on Saturday, 1 June and Sunday, 2 June 2019 at Victoria Theatre as part of Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) 2019. Inspired by the techno-rave scene of 1990s Berlin, Crowd sees 15 dancers create temporal distortions, alternative realities and dreamscapes, exposing the core of our “inner selves”. Victoria Theatre’s stage was covered by a layer of soil, with packets of chips and rubbish visible at the back of the stage to create the setting for an open-field rave party. Crowd opens with a single dance walk onstage in slow…

Held from Tuesday, 21 May to Sunday 26 May 2019 as part of Singapore International Festival of Arts (SIFA) 2019, Bedtime Stories was conceived by Dutch collective URLAND and inspired from radio plays of yore. Attendees gathered at the National Library before being taken to a secret, outdoor venue. There, Thomas Dudkiewicz masterfully transported audiences to his realm of stories, relying only on his voice, coupled with well-timed light and sound effects. “It was a dark and lonesome night…” so begins Dudkiewicz in Bedtime Stories. Bedtime Stories revolves around Lilly, a precocious young girl, her father and grandfather – Max…

Following successive showings in Japan and Korea, Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia 1960s-1990s will make its Southeast Asian premiere at National Gallery Singapore from Friday, 14 June to Sunday, 15 September 2019. Featuring 142 provocative artworks by more than 100 artists from 12 countries in Asia, Awakenings spotlights a critical turning point in Asia’s post-war history that saw artists — and the public — assert their identity and become advocates for change through art. The period between the 1960s and 1990s was characterised by ideological confrontations, rise in nationalism, rapid modernisation, and a wave of democratic movements across Asia.…

While the Singaporean arts scene may not be as conspicuous compared to other countries, it has seen significant growth in the range and quality of cultural offerings. To show support for the growing arts scene in Singapore, DANAMIC supported two productions by local universities this year – ICN: Arunika by NTU and GAYA: Sangharsa (The Struggle) by SMU. ICN: Arunika Organised by Pelajar Indonesia NTU (PINTU), the Indonesian Students of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) presented Arunika, a musical that pulled the audience into the dark past of slavery and cruelty that plagued the city during the early nineteenth century. Arunika…

Feast your eyes on eight dramatic, larger-than-life inflatables – among 40 unique artworks – at the Floating Utopias exhibition, hosted at the ArtScience Museum. Held from Saturday, 25 May to Sunday, 29 September 2019, the exhibition takes a playful and poetic look at inflatable objects, showing how they have been used in art, architecture and social activism over the decades. Floating Utopias is a visual spectacle grounded by a strong political narrative that reveals how inflatable objects were used for ideological propaganda in the 20th century, and how artists countered these tendencies by using them as playful tools of social…

Blending stage and cinema, Geki×CINE’s Shiren & Ragi brought the popular stage performance of the same name to Golden Village’s (GV) silver screens in Singapore – GV’s first foray into such alternative content. The play stars Tatsuya Fujiwara – best-known for his leading role in the Death Note series – as well as other recognizable stars from the Japanese entertainment industry. Synopsis The fictional play is set in the Nanboku-chō period, when Japan was divided between the North and the South. Shiren (Hiromi Nagasaku), a legendary Northern Assassin, was sent to the South as a spy to assassinate Godai (Katsumi…

Extravagantly told by one of UK’s most respected directors Simon McBurney – accompanied by actors from the famed Schaubühne Berlin – Beware of Pity is a critically-acclaimed stage adaptation that opened this year’s edition of Singapore International Festival of Arts at the Esplanade Theatre on Thursday, 16 May 2019. Adapted from the only novel by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig – one of the world’s most famous writers in the early 20th century – Beware of Pity tells an emotionally-gripping story about the treacherous nature of pity. The accomplished actors of the Schaubühne Berlin create a nuanced, vivid account of Anton…

The Gallery Children’s Biennale – organised by National Gallery Singapore – is back for its second edition from Saturday, 25 May, to Sunday, 29 December 2019. Held in alternate years to each other, the Gallery Children’s Biennale complements the Children’s Festival, which was first launched by National Gallery Singapore in 2018. This year’s exhibition is themed ‘Embracing Wonder’ and will feature 11 interactive and multi-dimensional artworks committed to inspiring young, curious minds through art. Inspired by a child’s unfettered imagination and ability to embrace all things new, the works activate the senses of children while reigniting their sense of curiosity,…

The highly-anticipated John Wick: Chapter 3 hit the big screens on Thursday, 16 May 2019, and it did not disappoint. Subtitled “Parabellum” – Latin for “prepare for war” – the third instalment of the franchise delivered the promised action sequences in the same flawless, unrelenting style built upon its predecessors. Similar to Chapter 2, Chapter 3 – Parabellum – picks up immediately after the ending to the previous instalment. John Wick (Keanu Reeves), having broken its rules in the previous movie by offing a member of the High Table in the criminal sanctuary known as the Continental Hotel, now has…