Arts

The Chinese character 界 (jiè), the theme of this year’s Singapore Writers Festival (SWF), is multi-layered in its meanings, referring to both the world and the universe at large, and physical and non-physical boundaries. It also alludes to the endless worlds of imagination, where such boundaries are more porous and even erasable. (L-R) Festival Director Yeow Kai Chai, Guest-of-Honour Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth, and Transport Mr Baey Yam Keng, and Chairman of SWF steering committee, Professor Kwok Kian Woon Its opening ceremony song under the same name already set the stage, with homegrown musician Kelvin…

What comes to mind when “satirical cartoon” is mentioned? The common tendency is to associate them with The New Yorker or other famous western comics of similar genres. The latest special exhibition, Between the Lines – The Chinese Cartoon Revolution, aims to highlight this lesser-known history by taking us on a time travel back to the golden age of Chinese political cartoons that emerged at the end of the Qing Dynasty. The exhibition space of Between the Lines – The Chinese Cartoon Revolution. You may be as surprised as I am to find out that witty commentary-styled cartoons in Singapore…

To call Shirkers a mystery would be an understatement. The documentary, now out on Netflix, explores the story behind Sandi Tan’s 1992 would-be film of the same name. Together with her best friends and teacher from film class, they embarked on a two-month long adventure to make Singapore’s first surrealist indie road movie about a serial killer. Just when shooting was over, however, their teacher, Georges Cardona, vanished with the footage. He left no reason for his disappearance and no trace of the film the friends had poured so much into. The film answers the questions raised by the disappearance…

At first glance, Ruin Me looks set to be a decent horror flick with the interesting premise of a girl being brought into a camping trip that doubles as a haunted house, and has to make it out alive when things go awry. And of course, what could go wrong eventually went wrong. This is the debut feature film for director Preston DeFrancis and honestly, it isn’t perfect. But that’s fine, and there are certainly positive points about the film. For now, however, let’s not sugarcoat things. The film stars Marcienne Dywer in the leading role as Alex, a non-horror…

The sustainable light festival will be returning with its bicentennial edition from 28 January to 24 February 2019. With artists from 36 countries – including Singapore – presenting their artwork proposals based on the theme ‘Bridges of Time’ at next year’s festival, this edition will also mark the largest response ever to the call for artwork submissions. An artist impression of City Gazing Singapore by VOUW (Mingus Vogel and Justus Bruns) from The Netherlands for i Light Singapore 2019 Organiser of i Light Singapore and chief executive officer of Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Mr Lim Eng Hwee, said: “This special…

Shirker (noun):Someone who avoids something, especially work (Cambridge English Dictionary). If you aren’t sure what the film is about, even after watching the trailer, you will not be alone. The mysterious trailer raises several questions while giving almost nothing away. Nevertheless, let me try and break it down for you. Premiering at the Singapore Film Society’s 60th anniversary event on 20 October and globally on Netflix on 26 October, Shirkers is a documentary by Singaporean-born film-maker Sandi Tan. The film chronicles the story of Sandi and her friends’ first movie-making experience back in 1992. The group filmed a Singapore-based indie…

Everybody wants to know what everyone else thinks about Crazy Rich Asians (CRA), particularly, if you’re Asian. Many commentators have already weighed in about how CRA is either a triumph of representation for the Asian community, or an opulent neo-colonial misrepresentation of the Singaporean, Asian, and Asian-American ethnic groups, and an actively discriminatory film. These are critical issues that deserve attention, but they ultimately grapple with the contexts that the film interacts with, and not the heart of the film itself. If we want to understand what the film means to the people who are watching it, then we should…

Indeed, no words in the vernacular can describe this great event… the Singapore Night Festival 2018 has returned. Our previous article covered some of the Singapore Night Festival’s Night Lights; this time, we bring to you the lowdown on the Festival Village, and what really stood out in this extravaganza. While the Singapore Night Festival has ended on 25 August, we reminiscence on some of the highlights that skirted the heart of Singapore’s town area. Late Night Texting brought some of our city’s brightest sparks in the theatre sphere at Centre 42, with a collection of over 30 plays by…

“X represents infinity, and my dream is to showcase most of these extraordinary artworks that embody this ‘X-factor’ so that the audience learns more than they think they see,” said Billy Mork, the founder and chief curator of X EDITION. Realising both his dreams and those of photography enthusiasts here in Singapore, the inaugural X EDITION art fair will showcase sculptures, installations, media art, and allow the general public to have an open dialogue with famed photographers such as Hokkaido-based contemporary artist and photographer Season Lao, New York-based fine-art photographer Stephen Schaub, and many more. An exposure from Billy Mork…

Having travelled across multiple American states and covering a distance of more than 6,000 kilometres along the China-North Korean border, the first Singaporean Nobel Peace Prize photographer, Sim Chi Yin, tells her compelling story through a series of photos of our time today on nuclear weapons. Titled “Most People Were Silent”, her solo exhibition juxtaposes nuclear sites in North Korea – the only country to test nuclear weapons in the 21st century – with the United States, the first country to have ever tested and used them. The front of the exhibition. Working with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear…