Front Row

The Kancils is the Malaysian advertising industry awards. This year, in a bid to expand and redefine itself, the awards is introducing a two-day creative festival that aims to bring together practitioners from fields like the arts, filmmaking, and literature. But when it comes to the advertising industry, can the commercial aspects of the business ever truly be separated from the creative? We speak to the Kancils 2018’s creative council chairman and deputy chairman about what their industry can learn from these new initiatives.

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The acclaimed Malaysian play called “A Modern Woman Called Ang Tau Mui” by Leow Puay Tin has had numerous stagings since it was first written in 1993. One of the adaptations that has proven to be very enduring is director Loh Kok Man’s version, which has been staged in both Mandarin and Cantonese. With another staging coming up, Kok Man and visual artist Fairuz Sulaiman - who worked on video art for the show - talk to us about the play’s enduring themes and how it resonates far beyond being the story of one woman.

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Malaysians may know of wayang kulit, but not of shadows by a hand-dramatist. Drew Colby from England was in Kuala Lumpur for a little over a week entertaining children and adults alike and running workshops to teach those interested how to use their hands, arms and shoulders to create creatures in silhouette on a screen. Drew Colby tells about his journey into this performance art and the joy that it has given him.

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Seven Malaysian choreographers are coming together in a dance showcase called “Ilham: Inspiration”. Each choreographer uses their individual approaches to comment on living in a new Malaysia. Three of the choreographers talk to us about what it means to be a Malaysian dancer, and how they both found and examined their identities within their art.

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It’s been six years since popular comedy revue “Indicinelive!” went on hiatus, and it’s now back with fresh new material - and of course, with Malaysia Baru, there is plenty of fodder for humour. Some of the folks behind the latest edition of “Indicinelive!” talk to us about sketch comedy, Malaysian humour, and the challenges of keeping the funny alive.

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As a global arts practitioner, Asad uses the arts to create and nurture sustainable communities around the world, particularly amongst groups who are under-represented within the global arts landscape. He often focuses on contemporary Muslim culture, redefining stereotypical ideas of what Muslim arts can be. We speak to Asad about his work, and how young people in Malaysia and globally can create arts communities that are both authentic and self-sustaining.

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In Wei-Ling Contemporary, the artist meets the microphone to tell about his third solo exhibition there. Sean Lean plays with the triptychs. In the works, collectively called ‘3’, he captures “the past, present and future,” “the body, soul and spirit,” the naturally occurring three’s which feature in tales, folklore and religion. The artist describes and explains two out of the several works in the exhibition.

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Four visual artists from Malaysia and Indonesia - Caryn Koh, Dedy Sufriadi, Indra Dodi, and Syahbandi Samat - come together to explore the stories that can be created by exploring the human facade in an exhibition called “Masks and Stories”. Dedy, whose works inspired the theme, and the show’s curator, talk to us about art, human personas, and social interactions.

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“Company” is one of Stephen Sondheim’s best-known musicals, one of that feels fresh and relevant more than 40 years after it first premiered on Broadway. The show is making its Malaysian debut through a staging by PAN Productions, and some of the folks behind it talk to us about bringing the iconic musical to life.

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In an increasingly connected and globalised worlds, discussions on boundaries and borders are more relevant than ever. Artist Phuan Thai Meng examines these issues within a Malaysian context in his exhibition “Imagined Homeland”, asking questions like: what does the notion of “home” mean? Thai Meng talks to us about the inspirations behind his works.

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