Arts

Debuting to a sell-out run at the 2017 Singapore International Festival of Arts, Pangdemonium’s Dragonflies once again returns with a potent and renewed relevance in the political climate of today. Bringing to life a dystopian world set in 2021 against a backdrop of seething xenophobia, racism, fearmongering and the worst of humanity’s darker nature, Dragonflies explores the resultant trials and tribulations of an everyman — Leslie Chen and his family as they try to navigate the turbulence thrust upon their lives. This is not a play that expects audiences to stay happily muted in their seats. Right from the start…

“Interactive = Incomplete”, the phrase shone on the pitch-black screen like a lone star in the night sky. Founder of Blast Theory, Matt Adams, began his presentation at Lasalle, College of the Arts with the curious claim. He then dove into an explanation of his company’s expertise: interactive art. Based in Portslade, England, Blast Theory is an artist collective that combines elements of theatre, film, video games, and many more for an ultra-unique take to art. What makes their pieces special – besides varying themes and mediums – is the inclusion of audience members’ participation. It is hence that the…

Welcome to the sanctuary for everyone who has not witnessed what might be the biggest movie event of all time: Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War. Yet. The rest of the world must seem like a scary place; dodging spoilers and ducking from Avengers references at every turn. Whether you are a fan who has not had the chance to catch a screening yet or someone who just wants to find out what all the fuss is about, there is no more need to worry, for we have prepared a guide to navigate the chaos. Background The Avengers series depicts a world where an extravagant…

The beauty of nature is inspiring for both artists and chefs alike. In this collaboration, Singaporean botanical artist Lucinda Law creates a series of piquant artworks to bring out the colours, shapes, and forms of edible plants. The paintings are co-curated by Executive Chef Vijayakant Shanmugam of Hilton Singapore, and feature some of Lucinda’s favourite botanical subjects such as pineapples, torch ginger flowers, bananas, and avocados. Dubbed Edible Beauty, the exhibition is a meaningful collaboration between three parties – Lucinda Law, Hilton Singapore’s Verde Kitchen, and non-profit charity organisation Food from the Heart – and will run for two months,…

“What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.” – C.S. Lewis There’s this famous French song by Édith Piaf titled “La Vie en Rose”, which translates to “life through rose-tinted glasses”. The singer croons about how falling in love has made everything around her seem beautiful. Singapore-based French artist Claire Deniau’s new exhibited work, Senses and Lenses, is poetically entwined with the plight of the modern painter. She has incorporated flawless mineral glass pieces that act as lenses in her paintings: looking…

Heads up! Hotel G’s latest art installations are enclosed just beneath, or rather, above your noses! When we first visited Hotel G, we were initially unable to find the gallery. After some clueless wandering, we were amazed – and mollified –to find the exhibition right before our eyes the entire time – up on the walls, hidden in plain sight. Perhaps it was the heat of a Saturday afternoon, or the fact that the gallery seemed to fit in with the hotel’s aesthetic so well that caused us to miss it. Either way, it was difficult for us to stop…

I could feel this production right before I watch it – from the entrance of Fort Canning Green, we were invited to enter the picnic spaces through “The Capitol” stage and have a sense of how it feels to navigate through the multi-dimensional set like the actors would. It was at this moment that I admired how the team’s Production Designer, Richard Kent, managed to utilise the stage not just to add more layers to the storytelling, but to make the play’s audiences feel a tad more special, as if telling us that we are not mere spectators of the…

2017 was a year Shakespeare aficionados could never forget: it was the only year Shakespeare in the Park could not be hosted due to the lack of funding. Instead, the Singapore Repertory Theatre (SRT) sated the nation with its critically-acclaimed banner production Forbidden City: Portrait of an Empress.  First held in 1997 with Hamlet, Shakespeare in the Park has been a recurring production theatre-goers look forward to. Since then, the production has staged notable Shakespeare works such as Much Ado About Nothing (2009), Romeo and Juliet (2016), The Tempest (2015), and The Merchant of Venice (2014). Explaining that the arts…

Brought to global attention through the efforts of the French explorer and artist, Louis Delaporte, Angkor Wat stands as one of the most spectacular architectural marvels achieved by any civilisation of antiquity in the world. The culture and art of the ancient Khmer held within its ruins are one of the riches heritage legacies that can be found in the Southeast Asian region. Despite capturing the western imagination for centuries, there has never been a major exhibition of Angkor Wat in Southeast Asia — that is, until now. Singapore’s very own Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) has collaborated with the Parisian…

One of the greatest ways to impart moral values on to the younger generation is through theatre, and what better way to do so by watching one of the most renowned fairytales come alive right in front of their eyes? Back for its second run since its debut in 2014, The Nightingale is an adaptation of the literary fairytale written by Danish author Hans Christian Anderson: when the Emperor of China (Leslie Tay) finds out that the song of the Nightingale (Kimberly Chan) is one of the most enchanting things in the world, he implored his Kitchen Maid (Natalie Yeap)…