by Bilqis Hijjas

On the way to see director Loh Kok Man’s new version of his work now entitled Toilet, I was expecting lots of grit and grime, blood and guts all over the walls, grotesquerie and grimness. What I found was altogether different: light polished vignettes, all scrubbed and disinfected. And while I enjoyed the production in the end, I couldn’t help feeling that something was missing.

By Eva McGovern

On the last day of a recent trip to Manila, we went to see Nilo Ilarde’s exhibition Cold Cuts at gallery/cafe Mag:net in Quezon City. Ilarde is a mid career conceptual artist and curator known for his artistic interventions of internal gallery architecture.

by Simon Soon

Paiman’s drawing installation begins with the discipline of a daily exercise, routinely selecting a verbatim from a published mainstream media source that would best represent the political development of the day. He then types them on the entry page of the appropriate date from an Islamic diary and pairs them with a doodle of his mutant comic figures that are largely devoid of any political commentary.

by Haseena Abdul Majid

There is a quiet sense of resignation to reality and dissatisfaction with chaos in Haslin Ismail’s recent exhibition Exorcismus Persona at RA Fine Arts. His surrealist approach covers various mediums, from painting, assemblage, mixed media, installations and handmade books.

by Bilqis Hijjas

Big changes are going on at Sutra Dance Theatre. January Low is leaving to spread her wings elsewhere and with her exit comes a whole new era for Sutra, and Alarippu to Moksha, Sutra’s regular performance which serves as a launching pad for student dancers, was a good opportunity to check out the shape of things to come.

By Eva McGovern

How aware are we of the influences of State urban planning on the creation of identity? Like it or not the positioning of infrastructure – housing, hospitals, schools, transport and government networks all inform individual and public consciousness. Where we live, where children go to school, where we shop and who we do all of this with is a carefully crafted construct designed by public and private individuals.

By June Yap

A process-based performance collaboration between writer and performer Verena Tay and interdisciplinary artist Noor Effendy Ibrahim that explores the conflicted sense of belonging and identity of a contemporary Chinese Singaporean woman coming to terms with the fast-changing landscape that she grew up in – the text written on the performance for its publicity material.

by Zahirah Suhaimi

The Central Market area in Kuala Lumpur has always been bustling with local shoppers, artisans and curious tourists. Last weekend, this creative hotspot was especially crowded with the KL Alternative Book Festival and Art for Grabs happening at the Annexe Gallery.

by Simon Soon

Marion D’Cruz’s lecture performance takes a new generation of arts supporters back into the heyday of theatre/dance/visual art/literary/education collaboration, reliving the Five Arts recipe that was borne from a sincere drive towards a multidisciplinary approach in art practice.

by Simon Soon

The Voyage To The Ends Of The World is an internalisation of the mythical heroic journey (think Joseph Campbell’s idea of the monomyth), using the photographic medium to convey the emotional weight associated with an abstract passage towards self discovery.

by Sharon Chin

Of all the openings I’ve been to (including my own), the one for The Light Show at Annexe Gallery last Thursday stands out as truly memorable. It was was the first time I’d seen so many people at an exhibition opening, ever. The energy in the air was palpable. It seemed like all the worlds of KL’s design, art, architecture and performance communities had converged in one place. It was awesome.

by Bilqis Hijjas

On rainy Sunday afternoons, KLPac seems like a warm glowing hub of humanity in a gray wet world. In the cafe, tables of friends laugh and clink their glasses of wine. Upstairs an orchestra is practicing – the sound of their brass and drums filters down to the foyer. A waiter with a trolley of beer clatters past. People filter in for the matinee in Pentas 2, chattering and twirling their wet umbrellas.

by Simon Soon

I’m convinced that the fascination with kitsch is driven by a complex feeling that displays just as much affection as repulsion for the subject. Liew Kung Yew’s one man show in Petronas gallery, Cadangan-cadangan untuk Negara Ku, is no exception – and I was trying to get this out of the artist.

by Tunyaporn Hongtong

It has come to a point where I’m not sure if this exhibition is recognised solely as a platform for promoting the works of new Thai artists or that there’s an expectation that these artists would soon join the ranks of their predecessors to become the hot new thing in Thailand’s contemporary art scene. After all, the exhibtion is known to be a launch pad for the career of some of Thailand’s most well-known contemporary artists (Arin Roongjang, Porntaweesak Rimsakul, Yuree Kensakoo etc.). Reflecting on this, I reckon it does work both ways. And actually… why waste time doubting it anyway? It’s a good art project when you get right down to it.

By Eva McGovern

I love super heroes. As a child, instead of your average imaginary friends, I had the League of Justice. Superman, Wonderwoman and Batman were my closest allies in fighting crime in the living room. Good times.