Front Row

There's been a surge of local productions that directly incorporate poetry with other performance disciplines like music, theatre, dance, and the visual arts. This episode, Sheena Baharudin explores the different ways poetry engages with the arts. In conversation with her to do just that are Veshalini Naidu and Hannan Barakbah.

Music Credit: Lakey Inspired

Track Name: Days Like These

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Stewart Macfarlane is one of Australia’s most prolific contemporary narrative painters, with his works in collections at, among others, Art Gallery of Western Australia, the Australian National Gallery, the the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art (New Mexico) and the Provincetown Museum and Art Center (Massachusetts). His latest series, “The Untold” (which is showing in Kuala Lumpur), sees him turning his figurative style towards his travels and the two countries he has called home, Australia and the United States. He talks to us about his inspirations and why he is drawn to capturing stories and characters in his work.

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Now into its fourth year, the Migrant and Refugee Poetry Competition provides a valuable platform for migrant workers and refugees in Malaysia to express themselves, and to display their literary talents. The event also creates a space where Malaysians gain insight into the thoughts and experiences of these communities. We speak to the competition’s founder, Shivaji Das, and two of this year’s finalists.

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With Canticle Singers upcoming choral concert just around the corner, Joanne Poh informs about the rather unconventional offerings which mixes gospel with classical, musicals and pop. She will also be introducing a singer with Asperger Syndrome at the concert, and shares on the work she also does with those on the autism spectrum. Patrick Leong gives a quick history of gospel music in the country and defines the genre in our local context.

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The Artists’ Workstations is an art exhibition where the line between the art and the artist’s process is blurred, by presenting four different artists’ works alongside their workstations. We speak to the show’s co-curator Eric Goh about turning the creative process itself into art, and what there is to be discovered in this undefined space.

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Inspired by the classic children’s novel “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett, artist Marisa Ng has painted a series of abstract expressionist paintings that recall nostalgic pleasures of childhood. She speaks to us about her process, her inspirations, and why this particular novel evoked such a strong reaction.

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Storytelling can be a powerful way of providing a voice to communities that often don’t have platforms for self-expression. As part of the Freedom FilmFest 2018, a participatory storytelling workshop is being held for Orang Asli girls and young women, they will be encouraged to explore their challenges with education through storytelling and performance. We speak to the trainers of the workshop on why such tools of empowerment are so essential.

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Lee Ren Xin and Lee Mun Wai, unrelated, met and developed a dance together. One from Malaysia and the other from Singapore. The dance exploration started without preconceived premises. No overarching existential questions. But out of that devising process, doing tasks, the emergence of themes and ideas that focus on the relationship between two people(s), two genders, two bodies, two objects when they encounter each other.

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What do a sarong, pottu, and wantan mee have in common? Well, they’ve each inspired a performance in the third edition of “Tiga”, a platform for new and emerging performing arts practitioners by the Five Arts Centre. In every edition, the creators are given three objects to create a performance around. We speak to the folks behind this latest edition on their creative process.

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A dance production called “Aadya” by Suvarna Fine Arts celebrates the female energy of the cosmos, by bringing together bharatanatyam, carnatic music, and verses and stories from ancient Hindu texts. We speak to the creators of the show, Ajith Bhaskar Dass, and Achyuthan Sashidaran Nair, about the many ways in which such classical works can continue to be relevant in contemporary times.

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