|
The Avenue for Creative Arts
|
|
|
'Ave News of the World of Art
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Above: Spanish sculptor art Cabeza Dorada has more than one of his impressive works on prominent show on Singapore's Orchard Road. This one is Cabeza Dorada. Photo by Opera Gallery.
Left: In the garden of the Barbara Hepworth Museum in St Ives, Cornwall, UK, a violinist serenades visitors while they view one the sculptor's bronze images. Photo by Dave Hickson.
|
|
|
|
|
Galleries Galore with Glorious Art
–
It's not enough that Singapore's National Gallery has just finished with its record-breaking crowd-pleasing exhibition of the eye-catching works of Yayoi Kusama. They've just announced that the best of Musee D'Orsay -
the exhibition entitled Colours of Impressionism
- is coming in November. Meanwhile, Gillman Barracks just marked five years as a new/old centre for the arts with galleries like
Sundaram Tagore
showing why they're still on top.
Opera Gallery
not only displayed the best of Spanish art hero Cabeza Dorada inside, but lined Orchard Road with some of his big sculptures too. Then
Miaja Gallery
gives us two "Faces of China, while
Bruno Gallery
gives the Singaporean father and son an art outing.
Writers in Festive Mood -
It's the love of Irish writers which puts them on centre stage at this year's
Singapore Writers Festival,
which runs from 3 to 12 November, even though the theme is decidedly Asian - Indian Tamil in fact - with the word
"
Aram". Read what
Helmi Yusof says about it in the Business Times.
Expect a host of Irish and Indian writers, but beyond Singapore's shores, there are also wordsmiths coming along from China, UK, France, US, Australia and New Zealand. Meantime, there are literary events of note elsewhere. In the UK -
Cheltenham Literature Festival 6-15 October
; in Bali, Indonesia -
Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 25-29 October
;
in Canada -
Vancouver Writers Festival 17 to 22
October; plus
Hong Kong comes up with its international literary writers showcase
same time as Singapore.
|
|
|
Art Scene and Heard in Singapore
|
|
|
|
|
Bar Coded Zebra Stripes Bruno Art Gallery gives us a double feature. Father and son Ky Huang and Wei Huang. There are sculptures and paintings large and small. Quaint and bold. Intricate and outlandish. All to see, enjoy and buy! This is a great little gallery in Tanglin which features appealing art from around the world, but finds the time and space to give Singapore artists a good run. Ky's zebra paintings are taking the world by storm and seeing good sales in New York.
Bruno Art Gallery.
Spanish Sculptures in Orchard Road Opera Gallery had the artist on hand all the way from Spain. The gallery was crowded with art enthusiasts from near and far. Even the Spanish Ambassador graced the occasion which was the opening of the exhibition by the very famous Manolo Valdes. Look along Orchard Road from Ion to the Mandarin and there are nine giant Valdes sculptures on show. They'll move to Gardens By The Bay sometime soon, but the Opera Gallery will show the artist until 15 October. Pity we didn't see anyone from the Singapore Tourist Board, seeing this was such a public showing of Singapore's passion for the visual arts in Asia.
Go to Opera Gallery for more.
|
|
|
|
|
Birds of a Feather at Miaja Gallery. One can always expect Miaja Gallery to come up trumps, artistically of course! This time with "Tales from China". At the exhibition opening, there was one of the artists, Nissa Kauppila, pointing out and talking about her work. Here's an American who's developed a "Chinese-style" without realising it until she visited China. See her work, and that of Kim Xu, showing at the Bukit Timah Road gallery for the next two months (until 1 December).
See more at the Miaja Gallery.
Making a Big Impression at Gillman To mark five years of Gillman Barracks, one of its most prominent galleries, Sundaram Tagore, delivered a strong message through the big art pieces of Antonio Puri. Inspired by his birthplace, Chandigarh, the modernist Indian city designed by Le Corbusier, Antonio presents large scale abstract paintings reflecting his cross cultural experience. Now he's moving to South America, to Columbia, where he has the space and time to do more. Meantime, you can see him making a big impression at
Sundaram Tagore Gallery at Gillman Barracks.
|
|
|
Art in Play: All the World's a Stage
|
|
|
|
In Shakespeare's Shoes: Have you ever wanted to step into the shoes of a great Shakespearean actor? Over the weekend, shoppers in Shakespeare's birthplace, which is also the home of the Royal Shakespeare Company, had a chance to walk away with a piece of theatrical history, as the legendary company held a sale of 15,000 costumes and other items, including this prized item
coat made from the pages of a book, created for the dancing satyrs in the 2009 production of The Winter's Tale.
Read more in the New York Times
|
|
|
|
|
Maria Upstages Athletic Dancers
: Enduring and as old as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet tragic love tale,
West Side Story comes to life on stage today, even though it was born on Broadway 60 years ago. There are changes and the Broadway production touring Asia brings dance to the fore, featuring the athletic Jets and Sharks, along with the classically-trained light-footed ladies. A wonderful mobile set was reminiscent of the magical "Les Miserables" staging, but taking the cake in the Marina Bay showing was Maria, played by Jenna Burn, singing her way into the hearts of the audience. You can still
catch West Side story in Singapore until 30 September, before it moves to Bangkok.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Coming of Age for Fun: Local theatre company Pangdemonium ends its 2017 season with its very own rendition of the famous Tony award-winning musical, FUN HOME. Based on Alison Bechdel’s best-selling autobiographical memoir, it tells a gripping coming-of-age tale that encapsulates a daughter’s determination to reconnect with her perplexing father. Date: 29 September to 15 October at the Drama Centre Theatre, The National Library Building.
Go to Pangdemonium for more.
|
|
|
|
|
Climbing the Social Ladder: A perfect cocktail of bleak truths and wild hilarity, “Absurd Person Singular” walks a fine line between farce and tragedy. Alan Ayckbourn's play portrays 1970s English suburbia and the only thing Sidney Hopcroft wants for Christmas is to climb the social ladder. It’s nothing however compared to what happens at the next two Christmases when their hospitality is returned.
The Stage Club presents this from 11 to 14 October.
|
|
|
|
|
Literally Yours: People of the Book
|
|
Frankfurt Book Fair or Frankfurter Buchmesse
Arguably, the most significant book event in the world, it is also the world's most important trade fair for content, a place for the international media to gather and a major cultural event. Nowhere else does publishing and media show themselves in such a diverse, innovative and international light than during these five days in October, from the 11th to the 15th. France is the guest nation of honour at this year's
Frankfurt Book Fair
. In addition, 16 publishing professionals from 16 countries will visit places and events in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Berlin, a highlight being the fair itself.
|
|
|
|
|
Richard Flanagan: First Person
If you're in Sydney on 4 October, you can join literary luminary Richard Flanagan as he sits down with Michael Robotham to discuss
First Person
– his first novel since winning the Man Booker Prize in 2014 for
The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
At City Recital Hall, Richard will discuss his blistering story of a ghostwriter haunted by his subject – sharing how he used aspects of his own life to mock the memoir genre. For more go to
the Sydney Writers Festival.
Giving Writers Wings
We missed the Byron Bay Writers Festival last month, but want to share a report on the event plus a photo where a TV identity gets wings, by courtesy of Dave Hickson's sculpture, especially made to go on show at the literary event.
Richard Roxburgh from
Rake
and other TV fame, was framed with a couple of well-placed wings by the Byron Bay Echo photographer. It didn't stop the sale of the sculpture - to a Sydney collector - and showed that artists and writers (along with TV celebrities) can gain from finding their wings on such occasions!
Read and see more of the festival and related events here.
Lee Foundation & Mapletree Support Fiction Prize
Its fate was uncertain earlier this year, but Singapore's richest literary prize will be pulling together for a third edition, thanks to major private sponsors. The Epigram Books Fiction Prize, Singapore's only prize for unpublished English-language novels, has released its longlist of 10 authors who will vie for the $25,000 top prize.Lee Foundation, a first-time donor, and Epigram's landlord, Mapletree Investments, which is supporting the prize for a second time.
Olivia Ho has the full story in the StraitsTimes.
Who's on the Man Booker Shortlist this year?
American heavyweights Paul Auster and George Saunders are to go head to head for this year’s
Man Booker prize, as major names make way for two new faces on the 2017 shortlist. The judges, chaired by Baroness Lola Young, have announced their shortlist of six titles. Alongside Auster and Saunders, the 29-year-old British debut novelist Fiona Mozley has secured a place in the final line-up, as did American first-timer Emily Fridlund.
The full story in The Guardian is here.
Don't Utter a Word in Advance!
While we're waiting for all the writers, books and performances for this year's Singapore Writers Festival to happen - 3 to 12 November - there's always some thing to enjoy in advance. If you're quick you can catch the first of
Utter, an annual
Singapore Writers Festival
initiative which showcases the best of Singapore writing and celebrates its potential to be adapted into different media and across languages, giving audiences fresh perspectives and a deeper understanding of our home-grown authors.
|
|
|
Top Notes From a Small island
|
|
|
The Festive Season of Art and Film
|
|
|
|
|
Green is the New Black:
A conscious festival for people who want to #LiveMoreConsciously by improving the way they think, work and consume while doing more good in the world. This is a place where fun and social environmental responsibility goes hand in hand. A marketplace. A talkfest. Food and entertainment. Pictured left is where it's at. The very green property Parkroyal on Pickering. One day only - Sunday 1 October. Don't miss it.
Here's more about it.
Eco Film Festival:
It's gone. We missed it this year, but lots of people made the most of it. 1-3 September. Read all about it on Facebook if you missed it too. Films with a message.Thought provoking panel discussions. Focus on waste. A highlight was the screening of the film
WASTED! The Story of Food Waste,
which sheds a light on the pressing issue of food waste. All at the Art Science Museum of Marina Bay Sands.
Check it all out on Facebook.
|
|
|
The Art of Travel: A Place in Time
|
|
|
A Place in Time:
"Umbrellas" (above), an installation by Greek sculptor Giorgios Zoggolopoulos. It was first exhibited at the 1993 Venice Biennale and then installed in Thessaloniki in 1997.
It was captured by Zengkun Feng, the Singapore freelance journalist who's been travelling far and wide, and sharing the Art of Travel with his Singapore Facebook followers. Keep us posted, as they say.
|
|
|
|
|
Don't feel guilty about a Washington visit
|
|
If you need one good reason to visit Washington DC, how about this.
Guilt
is a play by Sydney-based playwright John Shand - also described as "a
librettist, author, journalist, drummer and critic" - which
sees its first full production from 2 January to 4 February 2018 at the Atlas Performing Arts Centre in DC. In 2014, Robert McNamara's Scena Theatre hosted a rehearsed, staged public reading (after it had received two readings in Australia), the success of which has led to this.
Read more about John Shand and Guilt.
Loved the read - take a trip back in time
Loved the article in the National Library's free magazine - in print and online - by Kennie Ting, headlined "East of Suez: The Mystique of Travel". At least partially it satisfied my lust for travel, heritage and art. When he's not assembling such written masterpieces, Kennie runs the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore . He's also author of the book, "The Romance of the Grand Tour: 100 years of travel in South East Asia".
Go to the BiblioAsia online to read more.
Finding art, culture & heritage in Singapore
For touring of a more recent sort but still taking in the heritage, culture and art of the place, check out Jane's Tours in Singapore. Here's a selection of what's coming up. Tuesday (10 October) Discovery Walk/Tales of the River Bank; on Thursday 12 October you can take the Black & White House Tour; then there's the Traditional arts and crafts tour on 14 October. If you think many traditional crafts and trades have disappeared altogether from Singapore, Jane will set you right. They are there to discover.
More about Jane's Tours is right here.
|
|
|
Postscript: A word or two
|
|
Where eCommerce Meets the Arts
We strongly believe that printed books – plus magazines and newspapers - cannot be replaced entirely by the divisive digital disruption. But as Amazon is finding out, they can still control the market for real books by making them more accessible and send-able. The same is happening in other ways for the arts. You can go online to book your travel, accommodation and events. Even pay (at a discount) to go to art museums, arts and heritage tours with
TravelEase.
You can go online and buy art – at
Addicted Gallery
for one. Looking in the media, music & books category, you'll find more than 300,000 items on
Lazada,
for example. You can study the arts online too. But as we strongly advocate, you also need to have the human and tactile connection with the arts. The art of travel and travel for art. Art therapy and art experience. While we are an
online
arts magazine, we are strong believers in the experience - of travel, of art, of books. Let's make the arts more accessible and going online can help a lot. - Ken Hickson
|
|
|
Brought to you by THE HICKSON TEAM
in association with
Fifth Avenue Asia, Sustain Ability Showcase Asia (SASA) and ABC Carbon
For all past issues of The Avenue, go to www.fifthavenue.asia
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
