Collecting Bodies: A short story about art and nudities in Asia

This show of nudes, beautifully curated by Dr Yanyun Chen, is a follow-up to The Culture Story’s 2021 show, Of Human Bondage. While the latter featured works from gallery co-founder Chong Huai Seng’s collection, this new show is curated from 10 private collections, which means it is a rare opportunity to see the works, some of which are on show for the first time. 

There are many standout pieces and Dr Chen has teased out intriguing connections between the works.

One display, for example, contrasts Singaporean pioneer artist Cheong Soo Pieng and Swiss artist Theo Meier’s traditional Balinese nudes against a striking contemporary piece by Pucuk Cemara, a Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts graduate of Balinese origin.

Pucuk depicts the mythical demon queen Rangda holding a weapon, a feminist response to the traditional male gaze presented by the two other painters. 

There is also a beautiful collection of ukiyo-e works, including shunga (spring pictures), which are erotic images, and export prints created for foreign consumption.

The most spectacular one is Tsukioka Yoshitoshi’s The Lonely House On Adachi Moor, showing the last great master of woodblock printing at his macabre best. The striking vertical composition is a Yoshitoshi signature. 

Other standouts in the show include Singaporean Jimmy Ong’s dynamic Left ½, in his characteristically energetic charcoal, and Mangu Putra’s witty Sisa Malam, depicting an empty but rumpled bed. 

Dr Chen will be conducting curator’s tours and it is worth registering for them as she offers plenty of tidbits and insights into the artists and works.

Where: The Culture Story, 03-06, 2 Leng Kee Road
MRT: Redhill
When: Till March 31
Admission: Free with registration at bit.ly/3ErJGkI
Info: theculturestory.co

Double Bill: King Of Chinatown (1939) + Daughter Of The Dragon (1931)

Actress Anna May Wong is having her moment, some 60 years after her death. The first Asian American to be a bona-fide Hollywood star, Wong recently became the first Asian American to be featured on a commemorative American coin.

A character inspired by her also pops up in director Damien Chazelle’s Babylon (2022), which is about actors in Hollywood making the transition from silent to sound films in the 1920s.

The Asian Film Archive’s double bill – part of its Constellating Histories: Encountering Asian American Diasporas Onscreen programme – is a rare opportunity to watch the legend herself in action. 

She plays Dr Mary Ling in crime drama King Of Chinatown, a character inspired by real-life female physician Margaret Chung. Ling is a doctor raising funds for the Red Cross in China. Wong had some input here under her Paramount contract and fought for more nuanced portrayals of Asian Americans. 

Daughter Of The Dragon, an earlier movie, is part of the infamous Fu Manchu series of films. Wong plays Princess Ling Moy.

Of equal note in this film is Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa, who plays Ling Moy’s love interest. Hayakawa, with his chiselled features and winged brows, was one of silent movies’ first sex symbols.

This film, made before the 1930s Hays censorship code, was Wong and Hayakawa’s first talking picture and also notable for the standard English spoken by both actors, versus the fractured accented parody that was to dominate the silver screen later. 

Constellating Histories, which is on from Jan 6 to March 19, will offer more than 30 works focusing on Asian-American films. The programming ranges far and wide, from rare classics such as this double bill to more mainstream fare such as the Jackie Chan action-comedy Shanghai Noon (2000). 

Where: Oldham Theatre, 1 Canning Rise
MRT: City Hall
When: Jan 8, 2pm
Admission: $10
Info: str.sg/wyhG

Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Award: 2022 Winner’s Recital

The latest winner of the $10,000 Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Award is 15-year-old Madeline Goh. 

The accomplished violinist, who is studying at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, will be playing her first solo recital next week. 

Her programme will include Mozart’s Sonata In B Flat Major K.378, which she describes as “simple yet entertaining with sweet motifs and interactions”, and Toi Toi Toi, a modern work by Gerhard Wimberger, a professor at Mozarteum. 

She says audiences can look forward to “a sweet and joyful first half, a virtuostic and fun second half with a surprise at the end”.

Where: Esplanade Recital Studio, 1 Esplanade Drive
MRT: Esplanade/City Hall
When: Jan 4, 7.30pm
Admission: $30 donation to the Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Fund. E-mail olivia@liv-intl.com
Info: str.sg/wyhN