Celebrate the Power of the Word. Choose Your Party
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For Immediate Release The Arts House turns 13! Celebrate the power of the word. Choose your party. Singapore, 3 March 2017 – In celebration of its 13th anniversary, The Arts House has invited artists, writers and musicians to come together to share stories that inspire their being and their work. Held over the weekend of 25 and 26 March, the renewed House Party will feature poetry, storytelling, films, music and photography and will extend out onto the Empress Lawn in the Civic District. “Since its inception, The Arts House at Old Parliament Place has been supporting and presenting Singapore artists in the realm of literary arts, and we are glad to be able to continue this mission,” says Sarah Martin, Chief Executive Officer of Arts House Limited, “We welcome all to be inspired by the literary arts presented in various artistic disciplines in our specially curated celebrations this year.” Music and Poetry Produced by the NAC Young Artist Award 2016 recipient and poet Marc Nair, Note for Note sets up a poetic musical dialogue between ten poets and ten musicians. Featuring poets such as Aaron Lee, Bani Haykal, David Wong, Deborah Emmanuel, Pooja Nansi,, Shivram Gopinath, and Yong Shu Hoong, as well as musicians including Patrick Chng and Vick Low, this performance will give these talented artists, each with strikingly different styles, a chance to explore the space between music and meaning in the historic Chamber. Storytelling Words come to life through the timeless art of storytelling with master storyteller Kamini Ramachandran, who will put a spin on tales about mythical Transformations found in Asian folklore. Created for an adult audience, Shapeshifter Stories is the solo showcase that revels in ancient stories of shapeshifters retold by Kamini with live music accompaniment. For families with young children, The Indigo Jackal sees the retelling of the famous tales of the cunning trickster from The Panchatantra, the ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables. 11 Music One of the two key music programmes as part of House Party is In The Spotlight curated by rising star violinist Loh Jun Hong. Featuring a stellar cast of classical musicians including the husband-and-wife team of LilianLillian Wang and Tan Wee-Hsin, this performance invites the audience to experience the illustrious harmonies of various instrument pairings sans the conventional performance space. Held in the Living Room, this space is ideal for the artists and audience to experience art-making on an intimate level. The second music programme that focuses on Jazz is curated by one of the region’s most prolific jazz pianists, Aya Sekine. The first component of this programme is Music@Empress - The Jazz Edition. With support from the National Arts Council, emerging and established jazz musicians including New York based Singapore guitarist Andrew Lim will take the stage at the lush space of the Empress Lawn within the culturally rich Civic District. In the second component to take place in the cosy Living Room, familiar names like Chok Kerong and Weixiang Tan will perform pieces that began their love affair with jazz. Photography Pet me, Pet Me, Look at Me, Love Me, an introspective photography exhibition, allows audience to explore notions of intimacy and longing. Held in a unique space within the House - Gallery I - Singapore-based photographers Liana Yang and Lavender Chang explore the role of the written word in their artistic practices. Tours and workshops with the curator and photographers will also be held to augment the exhibition experience. Two separate dialogue sessions will see Yang and Chang engage and converse, with NAC Young Artists Award 2012 recipient and Epigram Books Fiction Prize 2015 winner O Thiam Chin as well as Cultural Medallion recipient You Jin (Tham Yew Chin) respectively. They will disscuss the common threads and themes in the different practices of literary arts and photography, and how text and images influence each other. Film In partnership with the Singapore Film Society, winning entries from the Singapore Heritage Short Film Competition 2016 will be screened. These films shine a light on the artistic and cultural practices that subsist on the fringes of memory in Singapore, from traditional analogue photography to Chinese opera. Audience will get to learn more about the art form, as well as the creative processes involved in film-making, in the post-show dialogues with winner Eileen Chong and first runner-up Saleem Hadi. Drop in activities True to any celebration, the transformation of space is integral. This will be manifested in The Arty Party Room. Artist collective 3 Pumpkin Project and sound artist Zai Tang will transform Gallery II. The public will be taken into a different dimension where they can contribute to the community collage using cut-outs of geometric shapes, lines, images, letters as well as found materials, or partake in a book exchange. Artists and musicians from the main stage programmes will also drop in with bite-sized teasers throughout the day. 22 House Tours In the spirit of anniversary celebrations, visitors can choose to embark on a tour that will follow the trials faced by first generation nation-builders like Lee Kuan Yew, David Marshall and S. Rajaratnam. Please refer to Annex A, Annex B and Annex C for the schedule, detailed programme write-ups and artists’ bios. ### For more information and high res pictures, please contact: Willy Beh Bernadette Yew Asst Manager, Marketing & Communications Asst Director, Marketing & Communications Arts House Limited Arts House Limited T: +65 6332 6921 T: +65 6332 6901 M: +65 9841 9794 M: +65 9793 3140 E: [email protected] E: [email protected] 33 About The Arts House Occupying the almost 200-year-old building that was Singapore’s first Parliament House, The Arts House has played an active role in the Singapore arts and creative scene. The House promotes and presents multi-disciplinary programmes and festivals such as literary arts, film, performing and visual arts. The Arts House is run and managed by Arts House Limited. For more information, visit www.theartshouse.sg. About Arts House Limited Arts House Limited (AHL) is a not-for-profit organisation committed to enriching lives through the arts. AHL runs The Arts House, a multi-disciplinary arts centre with a focus on literary programming located in the heart of Singapore’s Civic District; presents the Singapore International Festival of Arts, an annual celebration of performing arts; and manages Goodman Arts Centre and Aliwal Arts Centre, two creative enclaves for artists, arts groups and creative businesses, and the exhibition and performance spaces located at ARTrium @ MCI. 44 Annex A: Schedule Schedule for 25 March 2017 Location Council Screening Blue Room Chamber Corridors Empress Lawn Gallery I Gallery II Play Den Porch Time Room Room 10am-11am Tribute to Our Transformations– 11am–12pm Founding The Indigo Jackal Pet Me, Pet Me, Storytelling Fathers Exhibition Tour Look at Me, Love Me Photography exhibition 12pm–1pm The Arty Party Room Between Frames 1pm–2pm Film Screening 2pm–3pm Curator’s Tour Storytime MoonShadow Stories Conversations Party Snackers 3pm–4pm with Filmmakers Rendezvous Eileen Chong Dialogue: You Jin and The Art of Singapore Lavender Chang 4pm–5pm Between Frames Film Screening Pet Me, Pet Me, Food for Tribute to Our Look at Me, Thought Founding 5pm–6pm Love Me Forum: Liana Yang The Arty Party Fathers Exhibition Photography Tour exhibition Room 6pm–7pm Music@Empress Jazz edition 7pm–8pm Note for Note Transformations– Music and Poetry 8pm–9pm Shapeshifter Stories Storytelling Jazz in the House 9pm–10pm Jazz Recital 5 Annex A: Schedule Schedule for 26 March 2017 Location Blue Room Gallery I Gallery II Living Room Porch Screening Room Time 11am–12pm 12pm–1pm The Arty Party Rendezvous Room Social Space Between Frames 1pm–2pm Dialogue: O Thiam Film Screening Chin and Liana Yang 2pm–3pm Pet Me, Pet Me, Let’s Play Chamber music recital Conversations with Love, Virtually Look at Me, Party Snackers by Lillian Wang and Filmmakers 3pm–4pm Forum session: Liana Love Me Tan Wee-Hsin F&B Yang Saleem Hadi Photography exhibition The Old Voice 4pm–5pm In The Spotlight Between Frames Chamber music recital Film Screening 5pm–6pm 6pm–7pm 7pm–8pm 76 Annex B: Programmes Storytelling TRANSFORMATIONS TheMusic Indigo and PoetryJackal: 25 March | 11am–12pm | Blue Room | houseparty- indigojackal.peatix.com ShapeshifterNOTE FOR NOTE Stories: 25 March | 8pm–9.15pm | Play Den houseparty25 March | -8pm–9pmshapeshifter.peatix.com | Chamber | $20 | houseparty-notefornote.peatix.com The Indigo Jackal 1 adult & 1 child* $18 2 adults & 1 child* $25 Each additional child* $8 *Age 10 years and below Recommended for families with children 4 – 7 years old. All children must be accompanied by an adult throughout the session. In conjunction with World Storytelling Day, The Arts House and Moonshadow Stories present Asian tales surrounding the theme of ‘transformations’. Note for Note is a performance that pairs ten poets with ten musicians. Produced by Marc Nair, the show reveals a different side to the poets, who will work with skilled musicians of their choosing to craft a musical dialogue. Featuring Aaron Lee and Yong Kailin, Bani Haykal, Christine Chia, David Wong and Vick Low, Deborah Emmanuel and Chong Li-Chuan, Kok Wei Liang and Mark Nicodemus Tan, Pooja Nansi and Nathan Kumar K., Samuel Caleb Wee and Koh Zhong Ren, Shivram Gopinath and Rupak George and fnally, Yong Shu Hoong and Patrick Chng. Producer’s Note ComeMarc Nair snooping, sniffing and slinking into the wily Jackal’s world! Listen to the story of the cunning“Being in trickster love is somethingand his most like famous poetry. adventure. Certainly, you A sly can tale analyze from The and Pancha expoundtantra its variousretold by senses masterand intentions, storyteller but Kaminithere is alwaysRamachandran, something withleft over,visual mysteriously puppets hoveringand lots between of audience music and participation.meaning.” This session is f ollowed by a simple craft activity to make your own Jackal - Muriel character Spark and bring him back home.