A view of the newly-opened 'The Secrets Of The Kebaya' exhibition at the National Textile Museum in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: The Star/Ong Soon Hin
EXHIBITION: THE SECRETS OF KEBAYA
Venue: National Textile Museum, Kuala Lumpur
Date: ends Dec 31
The Saindera Gallery at the top floor of the National Textile Museum is presenting The Secrets Of Kebaya exhibition, which is spread across two halls.
The exhibition, organised by the National Unity Ministry in collaboration with the Department of Museums Malaysia (JMM), opened its doors to the public on Oct 19 and will continue until Dec 31. The exhibition offers a general - and accessible survey - of the kebaya story in Malaysia, including its multi-racial roots, shared fashion heritage and also its place in pop culture.
It also highlights the uniqueness, elegance, and diversity of the kebaya through the generations, with traditional kebaya exhibits sharing exhibition space with fashion forward styles.
At the gallery, visitors can admire the kebaya collection owned by JMM and also borrowed items from exhibition collaborators.
At the (ticketed) exhibition’s recent launch, the National Unity Minister Datuk Aaron Aro Dagang said the exhibition aims to support the government's role and efforts in elevating and promoting kebaya under the Unesco Intangible Cultural Heritage and Cultural Heritage of Humanity lists.
He added Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand are involved in a joint kebaya nomination bid for inclusion in the Unesco lists.
The government hopes that the joint nomination will succeed in gaining recognition, thereby promoting and celebrating the richness of historical heritage and fostering cross-cultural understanding among the five countries.
More info here.
A video projection work titled 'Hungry For Mamak' seen on the facade of the MaTIC building in Kuala Lumpur. It is part of the Terang 2023 public art series, put together by digital art collection Filamen. Photo: Filamen
TERANG 2023: PROJECTION MAPPING SHOW
Venue: Malaysian Tourism Centre (MaTIC) building, Jalan Ampang, KL
Date: ends Oct 29
Here is a free admission public arts event for night birds. MaTiC, the 88-year-old heritage building in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, is being transformed into a canvas for a spectacular projection mapping show called Terang 2023, which is open every evening (8pm to 11pm) until this Sunday.
Terang 2023, put together by digital art collective Filamen, is presenting 34 luminous one-and-a-half-minute video mapping artworks created by both international and local artists as well as the university students from Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia - all coming together with the theme of "Warisan" (Heritage).
The works will then be judged by a panel of projection mapping experts across the South-East Asian region with prizes to be awarded accordingly. A series of digital and on-ground workshops and sharing sessions will also be held the Terang 2023 show site, with the focus on introducing the art of projection mapping to the masses.
Working closely with Aswara, Terang 2023 by Filamen is one of the artistic highlights activated in conjunction with the SEA Futurist in Arts and Cultural Exchange 2023 (SEA Futurist 2023) to showcase the potential of preserving intangible cultural heritage through digitalisation.
More info here.
Adil’s Raku pieces comes in five different types of finishes: full-copper matte, half-copper matte, smoked (or ‘naked’), carbon half-copper matte, and obvara (a slightly varied technique of firing). Photo: Zhan Art Space
EXHIBITION: 'LIFE: MAGNIFIED' CERAMIC ART
Venue: Zhan Art Space, Petaling Jaya
Date: ends Jan 2024
Zhan Art Space is collaborating with local ceramic art brand Raaquu to introduce into the magical world of traditional Japanese Raku ceramics for all art lovers.
The exhibition Life: Magnified sees Perak-based ceramic artist Adil Abdul Ghani presenting works inspired by nature. This series also serves as a preview to his first ceramic solo exhibition scheduled for January 2024.
The Japan-trained Adil first learnt about ceramic firing (with a hot kiln) 15 years ago. These ceramic sculptures follow the same Japanese technique developed back in the 1580s and are also known as art “painted by fire”, a main characteristic of Raku creation. These ceramic pieces are special due to the unpredictability of the art form’s firing technique.
Over the years, Adil has also merged the traditional Raku technique with a more contemporary finish. Life: Magnified is being showcased in two parts, a preview collection from now till December, and a full collection in January 2024.
More info here.
A scene from 'Soul Of Odyssey', a multi-sensory work based on the Greek classic 'The Odyssey' by Homer. Photo: KL Shakespeare Players
PERFORMING ARTS: 'SOUL OF ODYSSEY'
Venue: Black Box, Damansara Performing Arts Centre, Petaling Jaya
Date: ends Oct 29
The KL Shakespeare Players are collaborating with the Hiroshi Koike Bridge Project of Japan to stage Soul Of Odyssey, a multi-sensory work based on the Greek classic The Odyssey by Homer. Directed by Hiroshi Koike with music composed and performed by Santosh Logandran, the performance reimagines Odysseus’s journey and his attempts to rise from the ashes of war, chaos and battles with deities.
Soul Of Odyssey weaves different performative practices, traditions and elements – dialogue, storytelling, movement, dance, live videos, live music, songs and chants – wrapped together with the aesthetic vision to create an integrated work that harmonises sensory perceptions.
Performers will speak in Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese, English and Japanese. The 90-minute show is the second chapter of a four-chapter international project, culminating in a final show in 2025 that will involve performers from Japan, Poland, Malaysia and Brazil.
More info here.
A filepic of a Wayang Kulit performance during Pusaka's Wayang Kulit panggung series in Machang, Kelantan. Pusaka founder Eddin Khoo will be presenting a public talk about the traditional arts outfit's work in documenting culture in Malaysia at Ilham Gallery in Kuala Lumpur on Oct 28. Photo: Pusaka
CULTURE TALK: BODY, BLOOD AND SPIRIT - THE STORY OF PUSAKA AND ITS SEARCH
Venue: Level 5, Ilham Gallery,KL
Date: Oct 28, 4pm
Pusaka’s 21st anniversary celebrations will be joyously rolled out in many ways - traditional arts evenings and insightful public talks right to an upcoming book launch and also a series of concerts.
Through the years, thousands have witnessed Pusaka’s shows - from Wayang Kulit, Mak Yong, Manora, Main Puteri, Dikir Barat traditions and more - at cultural arts shows or festivals.
This Saturday evening at Ilham Gallery, the traditional culture organisation’s founder Eddin Khoo is set to share and reflect on Pusaka’s wild and eccentric odyssey, the perennial search for memory through explorations of collective culture and our human nature - of semangat (spirit), angin (temperament), the essential self. The artistic and ritual traditions Pusaka engages with illuminate history, and are born of the centuries of cultural encounter that have shaped community life in Malaysia, that still pulsates in the bodies, blood and spirit of her people.
In this public lecture, Khoo also contemplates how the aesthetics of traditional arts have influenced the attitudes and approaches of contemporary artists in Malaysia, looking in particular at the iconography of Wayang Kulit, of stupas, and of energy points in the artworks of the late Malaysian artist Nirmala Dutt, which re currently being shown in an exhibition at Ilham Gallery.
This free admission talk (register here) is organised by Pusaka in collaboration with Ilham Gallery.
Pusaka’s limited commemorative edition book, What Is Remembered - Our Masters Of Oral Tradition In Their Own Voice, will be available for pre-order.
More info here.
A scene from the 'Forkbeard: A Viking Musical Odyssey” show in Penang in March 2020. Photo: Filepic/The Star/Picby:CHAN BOON KAI/The Star/16 march 2020.
PERFORMING ARTS: 'FORKBEARD: A VIKING MUSICAL ODYSSEY'
Venue: Pentas 1, KLPac
Date: ends Oct 29
Journey back a millennium to witness a tale as grand as the Nordic seas themselves.
On the KLPac stage, Forkbeard: A Viking Musical Odyssey will sail back to one of the grandest naval confrontations of the ancient Nordic Sagas.
The musical offers a story based on the massive naval ambush, “The Battle Of Svolder”, a culmination of rivalry between Denmark’s infamous Viking leader Svend Tveskaeg (Forkbeard) and Olav Tryggvasson of Norway in late summer of 1,000 AD.
With choreography led by dancer-choreographer Aida Redza, accompanied by a symphony of epic music led by Dominic Lucien Luk, Forkbeard promises a theatre show with “moving vocals and harmonies telling tales of brotherhood and betrayal, echoing through the threads of time.”
The musical is directed by Karam Tabba, a Syrian refugee, and produced by Dr Nancy P. Jenster, whose own Danish family is descended from Forkbeard, 46 generations back.
“Fuelled by divine intervention, the tale culminates in a frenzied quest to reclaim a stolen ring of crimson amber - a symbol of royal power. Can the memory of a once indestructible brotherhood surpass the overwhelming currents of vengeance and animosity? The fate of these warriors is, after all, in the hands of the Gods ...” reads the show’s notes.
More info here.
This weekend, Nazura and Sharmin (left) will wrap up their joint exhibition 'Bapaku Pulang' at Temu House, which pays tribute to their late fathers and their respective art collections. Photo: The Star/Kamarul Ariffin
EXHIBITION: 'BAPAKU PULANG'
Venue: Temu House, Petaling Jaya
Date: ends Oct 29, 10am-5pm (weekends)
It’s the last weekend to catch this heartwarming and unique exhibition Bapaku Pulang, which features selected Malaysian artworks from the collections of Nazura Rahime and Sharmin Parameswaran, the daughters of the late art collectors Rahime Harun (1954 –2008) and Datuk N. Parameswaran (1948–2022) respectively.
The exhibition highlights modern and contemporary art works by 39 artists, offering a glimpse into the artists and topics/themes favoured by both Rahime and Parameswaran, who actively collected art and participated in the local art scene from the early 1980s.
Curated by Sarah Abu Bakar, this selling exhibition features 53 artworks spanning from the Wednesday Art Group contemporaries Peter Harris, Grace Selvanayagam and Dzulkifli Buyong, to the Anak Alam artists of the 1970s with Mustapa Haji Ibrahim, Maryam Abdullah, and Ali ‘Mabuha’ Rahamad, as well as early works (drawings, prints, photographs) from Ahmad Zakii Anwar, Eric Peris, Juhari Said, Nik Zainal Abidin and Yau Bee Ling.
Together with the exhibition's last weekend, visitors can also enjoy a range of traditional pastries and more served at the venue’s cafe.
More info here.
A general view of The Godown arts centre in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: Fabian Lim
GODOWN ARTISTS MARKET
Venue: The Godown Arts Centre, Kuala Lumpur
Date: Oct 28 and 29
This weekend, The Godown KL team has put together a Godown Artists Market with the theme Pink-Halloween. Visitors can enjoy a laidback time at this arts space, with artists and craft-makers set to show and promote their works, and local pop-ups brewing fresh food and beverages. The market (free admission) will also have a talk on Breast Cancer Awareness, workshops and performances in this weekend’s programme.
The “Featured Artist” for this upcoming Godown Artists Market is the TitikMerah Collective, notably its five members - Aarifin Amin, Ajim Juxta, Aleff Ahmad, Ellis Khan and Ho Mei Kei - who will be showcasing their recent works. Founded in June 2014, the Titikmerah Collective is a platform for local emerging artists, particularly self-taught artists to showcase and market their artworks.
Make your way to The Godown and support the local arts and creative community. There is something for everyone to enjoy, including gamelan and sand-art candle workshops. The workshops require a fee and pre-registration.
The market starts from noon to 8pm on both days.
More info here.
