Front Row

There have been so many interpretations and versions of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, yet artists continue to find new ways to engage with this timeless tale of tragic love. The latest offering, called “A Tale of Star-Crossed Lovers”, is a collaboration between the KL Shakespeare Players and butoh dance group Nyoba Kan, where butoh is used to break down and reinterpret the story of “Romeo and Juliet”. To brings things even closer to home, the performance will also be interwoven with the Javanese dance of Rama and Shinta. We speak to the show’s director, butoh master Lee Swee Keong, and performers Hana Nadira and Zul Zamir, about this unique new interpretation.

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Over the past decade or so, local spoken word artists have gone from having to search and share spaces at open mic gigs, to making ones at public areas and now, as seen in the variety of monthly poetry events happening in KL and other cities in Malaysia, establishing their own spaces both online and offline. This month, Sheena Baharudin speaks with Umar Azizi about the creative space to reflect, collaborate, play and be stimulated.

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It’s Deepavali season, and sarees are everywhere. The saree, however, is much more than just something to wear. As a garment with a history of about 5,000 years, it also carries with it many of the Indian subcontinent’s artistic traditions. So we take the opportunity to talk about the saree as a living, wearable work of art, with Sumitra Selvaraj, founder of Sarees And Stories (@sareesandatories on Instagram), an online space for saree appreciation and discussion.

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Artist Yim Yen Sum uses fabric and embroidery to create works that reflect on the rapidly-disappearing historical buildings in Malaysia. The intricacy of the work and their delicate appearance evoke thoughts of impermanence and memory. We speak to Yen Sum and gallery director Lim Wei-Ling, about the artist’s latest exhibition: “The Further You Stand, the Clearer You See”.

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The Young Choral Academy, beyond running classes on choral singing and voice lessons, also organizes choral festivals. Earlier this year, it ran a national choir competition and the first Malaysian Men’s Choir Festival. In the coming week, a festival with a Gaelic flavour, the 16th Malaysian Choral Eisteddfod 2018. Susanna Saw talks about singing for the young and the efficacy of such festivals.

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“we will have been young” is a contemporary photography exhibition that brings together 12 emerging Southeast Asian photographers to examine the fragility of youth and the transience of the future. The works featured were developed over 12 months through a photography masterclass, and take a visual anthropological approach, and highlight the unique visual language of the Southeast Asian region. We speak to Alvin Lau, one of the Malaysian photographers in the programme, as well as Vignes Balasingam, director of the OBSCURA Festival of Photography.

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A visual arts exhibition called #ReimagineUs, happening at the Urbanscapes 2018 festival, brings together different artists and collectives to reimagine and recreate Kuala Lumpur’s people, communities, and spaces. These interpretations will be presented as nine alternate realities in nine different rooms. We speak to the exhibition’s curator Sharmin Parameswaran about putting the show together, and how imagining a different KL might allow us to rediscover the city we currently have.

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The Picha Project is a social enterprise that works on empowering marginalised communities in Malaysia through food catering. At the upcoming Urbanscapes festival, The Picha Project is presenting an immersive experience called “This Is Home”, which highlights the life journey of refugees and puts us momentarily in their shoes by showing us what their homes - both before and now - might look like. The Picha Project co-founder Suzanne Ling tells us how the exhibition was put together and what they hope it will achieve.

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Thejomaye Menon is an artist from Chennai, India who uses her art to explore the sense of being between cultures, from a uniquely female point of view. She’s having her first solo exhibition in Kuala Lumpur, called “Transitional Identity”, at the Sutra Gallery. We speak to Thejomaye about how her cultural experiences and attachment to Kerala have shaped her art.

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As part of Urbanscapes 2018, MyDance Alliance is bringing its “Dancing in Place” initiative - which features outdoor site-specific dance works - to the streets of Kuala Lumpur. Four different stops around KL will feature different dance works while simultaneously engaging with historical sites like Medan Pasar and The River of Life. The works redefine the relationship between dance and its audience, while also reimagining these urban spaces. We speak to some of the choreographers and dancers involved.

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