Why so ssserioussss? Watching the late Heath Ledger perform that line as The Joker was surely one of the best moments in The Dark Knight. One day someone has to organize an exhibition with that title (along with ‘Who’s Your Daddy?‘).  With all that’s happening in the country these days (weird new PM, triple by-elections), there’s no better time to celebrate the fool in us all. There are some excellent events coming up in the next couple of days that you don’t want to miss. I’m going to indulge in some serious art-going and recommend you do the same, starting with:

Heath Ledger as The Joker. Image source here.

~

Tuesday (that’s tomorrow!): 31 March 2009, 6:30pm
ART APPRECIATION SERIES: AN INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPORARY ART IN MALAYSIA
Part I: The Malaysian Art Scene: Art Practice in Context @ Galeri Petronas, Level 3 Suria KLCC >> Beverly Yong, curator, writer and director of Rogue Art Consultancy is giving an informal talk about the contemporary visual art scene in Malaysia. For anyone who’s somewhat puzzled as to what goes on in our tight little artworld circle, this will be an excellent introduction. Knowing Beverly, the talk will be accessible, engaged and probably KL-centric. Be there! If you’re not big on talks, there’s always the Q & A session, where you can cause a ruckus, or witness one.

~

Right after that, I’m going to hop over to:

Tuesday: 31 March 2009, 8:00 – 10:00pm
PechaKucha Night Kuala Lumpur Vol.06 @ Urbanattic, Capsquare >> It’s easy to be be bored out of your brains at artist/designer presentations. They drone on an on, and you start to twitch everytime you hear the lines: ‘I was interested in exploring *insert high-falutin concept here*…’ Pecha Kucha takes the pain out of artist talks. It was invented by two architects, and is an event where a line-up of creative practioners are allowed to present only 20 slides, and speak about each slide for only 20 seconds. I took part in Vol. 01 and it was super fun. The best part is that if you get bored with any presenter, it will only last 400 seconds = a little over 6 minutes! Speakers will include: Itchy Hands Works (a metalsmithing studio), documentary filmmaker Fahmi Reza, and the 4 international finalists from British Council’s Design Entrepreneurs Award (IYDE). It will be a great crowd, so bring your namecards.

~

The next day:

Wednesday: 1 April 2009, 8:00pm
Video Art from Japan: A Screnning & Discussion @ SiCKL (Studio in Cheras KL) >> Last week, I met with some video artists (they also organize screening events) from Japan, Katsuyuki HATTORI and SATO Hiroaki. They were cool, down-to-earth people who were interested in learning all they could about Malaysian art in general and video artists in particular. They will be be presenting their work at SiCKL, one of the most experimental art studios/spaces/collectives in town. I’m kicking myself that I haven’t made my way over there yet, and the salty suburb of Cheras is my chosen April Fool destination.

~

And the next:

Thursday: 2 April 2008, 8:00pm
Improv Lab @ FINDARS 001, Annexe Central Market >> If you don’t get enough SiCKL love the night before, you can fill up at their montly art laboratory session the next day. 4 invited artists perform a 15min set each, and then get together for a jamming session. The artists come from different fields, all very accomplished. Therefore, while there promises to be some delicious chaos, it will NOT (likely) be an extended wank with creative types bashing around in a sandbox. The improvisers this time around will be: Yong Yandsen (musician), Azmyl Yunor (musician), Fahmi Fadzil (actor), JacAlMap (musician) and Lärmpirat (musician, Austria). I’m looking forward to some fleetingly sublime moments.

(SC)