Arts Picks: Sriwana marks 70th anniversary, SWF Encounters and Botero at Opera Gallery
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Malay performing arts company Sriwana is celebrating its 70th anniversary with a performance at the Singtel Waterfront Theatre.
PHOTO: SRIWANA
Follow topic:
Sriwana 70: Teras. Paksi. Titik.
It is a remarkable achievement for any arts group to reach its 70th birthday. Home-grown Malay arts troupe Sriwana marks this milestone with a two-night programme.
Sriwana’s artistic director Fauziah Hanom Yusof has also invited collaborators from both Singapore and Malaysia. Singapore percussion group Nadi Singapura will provide live accompaniment and eight male dancers from Malaysia’s Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris (UPSI) will join Sriwana’s performers.
She says: “They are second- and third-year students and they are professionally trained. We will benefit from this partnership in the long run.”
She is hoping to tap the professional expertise of organisations like UPSI to take the group further. The show will revisit two updated classics from its repertoire and highlight new works by young choreographers.
Fauziah adds: “We have 70 years of works, we treat it as an archive. This whole production is about the core attributes of our group that have helped us survive 70 years.”
Where: Singtel Waterfront Theatre, 8 Raffles Avenue str.sg/u8kp
MRT: Esplanade
When: Jan 31, 8pm, and Feb 1, 8pm
Admission: $40
Info:
The Line Of Best Fit
Ms Annaliza Bakri (in black and white), curator of The Line Of Best Fit, with Ms Noorashikin Zulkifli (in dark grey), ACM’s principal curator and deputy director, conducted a sold-out tour of the programme.
PHOTO: ASIAN CIVILISATIONS MUSEUM
This first collaboration between the Singapore Writers Festival (SWF) and Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) is a good idea marred by poor execution.
Part of SWF Encounters, an outreach programme, The Line Of Best Fit sets excerpts by eight writers alongside artefacts in the museum. There are intriguing resonances in the resulting dialogue between literary writings and historical artefacts.
An excerpt from Erni Salleh’s entertaining 2020 treasure hunt-meets-history puzzle novel The Java Enigma
Other displays are thought-provoking, as there is a more tangential relationship between the text and artefacts.
For example, the Sisyphean story in Yeng Pway Ngon’s Chinese poem Stone gives new nuance to the cotton batik emblazoned with a mother-and-child image in the Christian art gallery. Tamil poet B. Ganga’s meditation on A Cup Of Tea is juxtaposed against a very literal teapot shaped realistically like a ginger root.
It is a pity, then, that the project has received so little exposure beyond a single sold-out curator’s tour. The writings could be better displayed rather than printed on haphazardly placed placards. It was not immediately evident which artefact some works are supposed to be in conversation with.
The Arts House Limited, which organises the SWF, has promised a digital map, so visitors can now take a self-guided tour. So, if you happen by the museum, this little project is worth some thoughtful moments of contemplation.
Where: Asian Civilisations Museum, 1 Empress Place www.nhb.gov.sg/acm
MRT: Raffles Place
When: Till Feb 16, 10am to 7pm daily, till 9pm on Fridays
Admission: Permanent galleries are free for Singaporeans and permanent residents
Info:
Homage To Botero
Opera Gallery’s Homage To Botero show includes paintings, sculptures and works on paper.
PHOTO: OPERA GALLERY
The last time Colombian artist Fernando Botero got a major outing in Singapore was in 2005, when the Singapore Art Museum staged an oversized gathering of more than 70 paintings and drawings and 36 sculptures.
Opera Gallery’s Homage To Botero is on a more modest scale, but it manages a charming overview of the artist best known for his full-bodied subjects.
There are some smaller works on paper. Nonetheless, it is the large-scale paintings of curvaceous women and stout men, depicted most often in mundane everyday poses – a family on a picnic with their pet, two men playing instruments, a tango-ing couple – that most visitors will zoom in on.
Opera Gallery’s Homage To Botero show includes paintings, sculptures and works on paper.
PHOTO: OPERA GALLERY
One of the more startling sculptures is one depicting the Greek myth of Leda and the swan. Despite the sensuality of the voluptuous curves, there is menace in the way the swan’s neck arches over Leda and the horror of the rape is evident in the way Leda turns her face away from the bird.
Opera Gallery is giving the show a longer run than the Singapore Art Week period, which ended on Jan 26 – something the smarter art galleries are doing to maximise their exhibitions outside the event window. So, art fans will still be able to catch more shows around town if they have not already been exhausted by the visual arts barrage.
Where: Opera Gallery, 02-16 Ion Orchard, 2 Orchard Turn str.sg/rYp9
MRT: Orchard
When: Till Feb 16, 11am to 8pm daily
Admission: Free
Info:
