VIRTUAL ARTS: 'MEPAAN' BY SINGAPORE CHINESE ORCHESTRA AND TUYANG INITIATIVE
Date and time: June 10 to July 10
As one of the opening programme highlights of the recent Singapore International Festival of Arts, the sold out MEPAAN show is now available to stream online through the SIFA On Demand channel. A broader audience can now catch this Singapore Chinese Orchestra and Sarawak's Tuyang Initiative collaboration.
In a breathtaking performance, featuring sape veteran Mathew Ngau Jau and storyteller Adrian Jo Milang, you can experience stirring strains of indigenous music and vocal tradition from South-East Asia’s island nations that are woven into a fabric of powerful orchestral compositions.
MEPAAN – meaning "always" in the Kayan language of the indigenous Kayan people of Borneo – is a sonic and visual trip into the wellspring of spiritual and cultural nuance embedded in South-East Asian native culture.
You can now watch it directly from the comfort of your home.
SIFA On Demand is ticketed. More info here.
VIRTUAL RADIO THEATRE: DATO' SERI
Date and time: June 21, 8pm
Radio Teater Nasional (RTN) by Manamana Productions continues its audio adaptation series of Dato' Seri, a Bahasa Malaysia theatre version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
The radio play version of Dato’ Seri is directed by Omar Ali, who co-adapted the play with his father, the late Tan Sri Muhammad Ali Hashim, for the 2016 stage version.
Dato’ Seri, set in the early 1960s in a reimagined Malaya called Pertiwi, tells the story of Dato’ DiKajang, played by Omar. Upon receiving a prophecy from three witches about his rise to the throne, Dato’ DiKajang walks down a path of deceit and treachery.
In the previous episode, Dato’ Seri DiKajang had just received the prophecy from the Tiga Nasib witch trio (Nadia Aqilah, Ruzana Ibrahim and Siti Farrah Abdullah) that he will be crowned king. Find out if Dato’ Seri DiKajang and his ambitious wife Datin Seri DiKajang (Sheena Baharudin) do anything to fulfill that prophecy.
Dato’ Seri episodes will be aired for free every Wednesday at 8.30pm until July 20 on RTN’s website and Manamana’s Soundcloud page.
VIRTUAL ART: MEGAN WONOWIDJOYO'S BLUE SHOES
Date and time: Unlimited
Blue Shoes is part of Megan Wonowidjoyo's Memory & Rebirth solo exhibition happening at Fergana Art Gallery in KL until June 30. Blue Shoes and Woman At Home (another of Megan’s short film) accompanies 24 digital drawings and GIFs.
If you can't make the exhibition, you can watch these videos on Megan's YouTube channel.
In the Memory & Rebirth exhibition, the artist/filmmaker/academic uses different artistic mediums that show how evocative emotional power can be harnessed to help describe and depict a family's journeys and separations.
Blue Shoes reflects on the emotional trauma of a woman going through long hours of difficult and repetitive cycles of quarrels in a marriage. Caught between her duty as a submissive wife and desire for self expression, the film describes the dilemma of a wife in a love-hate relationship in a marriage.
More info here.
VIRTUAL TALK: 'GO' IN MALAYSIA
Date and time: Unlimited
The Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur’s JFKL Mini-Series is a virtual initiative to introduce Japanese arts and culture in Malaysia.
In this episode, follow Go instructor and enthusiast Chow Chee Wen, as he shares his journey with this complex ancient board game in Malaysia. An East Asian board game, Go is an abstract strategy board game in which the aim is to surround more territory than the opponent. If you think this is similar to chess, think again. The wooden board has a grid of 361 intersections.
Go In Malaysia can be streamed via JFKL’s Youtube channel.
More info here.
WEBINAR: TRADITIONAL TEXTILES AND COSTUMES
Date and time: June 23, 5pm
This is the sixth episode of Badan Warisan Malaysia’s six-part webinar "Spotlight On Sarawak" series.
Did you know that the earliest evidence of textiles in Sarawak are fragments associated with burials that were recovered from the Niah Cave in Sarawak? This cave was inhabited by prehistoric humans 40,000 years ago. And that the first known material to be used for clothing was the bark of trees, which was practised by indigenous peoples all over Sarawak?
Dr Welyne Jehom will discuss the various types of textiles that are used in Sarawak and how despite having many ethnic groups in that culturally diverse state, these textiles remain an important cultural unifying force that brings them together.
More info here.
VIRTUAL THEATRE: RE:LAPSE(D)
Date and time: Unlimited
Stage actor/director Ghafir Akbar explores whether the last two pandemic years were the passing of time or more than that in this new digital theatre project.
Supported by the Cultural Economy Development Agency’s (Cendana) Create Now Digital Grant, re:lapse(d) is a series of minute-long videos (24 in total) that will recount Ghafir’s various states of being during the lockdown.
This is Ghafir’s attempt to catalogue and archive his lockdown experiences before he forgets them.
Re:lapse(d) can be streamed for free via Ghafir’s Youtube channel. To date, 10 videos have been uploaded.
More info here.
