Process

A collective blog. An online black box.

Five Arts Centre members share sneak peeks of new works-in-process, hold conversations with fellow cultural practitioners, and reflect about their artistic, advocacy, and activist practice.

A Look Back At 2023

Radical Tenderness.  Touch Me Hold Me Let Me GoMalam Takdir.  Southeast Asian Arts Censorship Database.  ANGGOTA 2: Re-Member.  A Notional History.  ItSelf TerJadi.  Contact Zones: Why Bother With Arts Archives?  Krishen Jit Fund.  ReformARTsi.  Performances at Yayasan Sime Darby Arts Festival.  Crowdfunding.  

And more.

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Thank You for Everything, Chee Sek Thim!

As fate would have it, the production of Malam Takdir staged across Penang and the Klang Valley earlier this year marked Chee Sek Thim's final project as a member of Five Arts Centre.  As the collective turns 40 in 2024, we would like to acknowledge Sek Thim's immense contributions to the directions and questions pursued by Five Arts in the past two decades.

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Terima Kasih & YNWA, Chew Kin Wah!

Earlier this year, Chew Kin Wah took the decision to withdraw from the Five Arts collective.  To use football metaphors - he is a die-hard Liverpool supporter - Kin Wah has hung up his Five Arts jersey and boots.  It's always heartbreaking when a collective member leaves, so we would like to take this opportunity to recognise his enduring contributions to Five Arts Centre.  

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Seoul Performing Arts Festival interview: Mark Teh

A Notional History will tour to the Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF), South Korea, SPIELART Das Theaterfestival in Munich (Germany), and the OzAsia Festival in Adelaide (Australia) in October and November 2023.  

Ahead of the tour, we share here a conversation between SPAF artistic director Kyu Choi and performance maker Mark Teh, which was first published in Korean on SPAF's blog.

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Ways of Working - Keywords

Video and e-book publication on Five Arts Centre and collaborators' collaborative ways of working. 

From the exhibition project 穿针引线: Threading Through the Eye of a Needle at the Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, China (21 November 2021 to 20 March 2022).

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A Notional History video portraits by UTAR students

36 Broadcasting students from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman shadowed A Notional History during its run at The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre recently. 

Watch seven 3-minute videos made by the students - capturing a day in the life of performers, designers, stage manager and director.

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A Look Back At 2022

2022 was a year of great flux in the economic, social, and political landscape locally and globally.  Like everyone else, we had to adjust, improvise and navigate difficulties, uncertainties, and precarities.  

A new chapter unfolded for us at Five Arts - a new space, new members, new works.  At the same time, a greater commitment to advocacy and supporting the larger ecosystem.

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Selamat menjalankan tugas, Fahmi Fadzil!

Five Arts Centre congratulates Fahmi Fadzil upon his appointment as the new Minister of Communications & Digital, Malaysia.  It is a bittersweet moment for the collective as we and Fahmi have come to a mutual agreement that he will officially withdraw from the collective, with immediate effect. 

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Solidarity with LGBTQ+ communities & Cultural Spaces

It's election season - which also means it's raiding season.  This is when Malaysian enforcement agencies performatively step up harassment and policing activities on the everyday lives and existence of marginalised, disenfranchised and vulnerable communities. 

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3 Questions: Production designer Wong Tay Sy

One of Five Arts Centre's closest collaborators, Wong Tay Sy is pulling double duty as production designer for both ANGGOTA and A Notional History - the first two performances in our new space in GMBB, Kuala Lumpur.  

Tay Sy reflects on her interest in the performing arts, and shares her approach to production design.. 

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a space, a place

After 23 years, Five Arts Centre has moved out from the 2-storey shoplot in Taman Tun Dr. Ismail where we had been located since 1998.  Trying to pack during the Covid-19 pandemic and Movement Control Order provided many challenges, but at the end of September 2021, we were able to gather collectively for the last time in the TTDI studio to share memories, stories, and say goodbye to this space which has nurtured so many artists and projects. 

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Interview: 2019 Krishen Jit Fund recipient Justin Lee

Justin Lee is an architect and interdisciplinary artist who has been creating installations and collaborating on live performances in recent years. Under the name Luna Macula, he also works as an analogue projection artist, using water as a primary medium. Justin was a Krishen Jit Fund recipient in 2019 for the project Seni Tiga #10: Impermanence, which he served as the creative director.

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Visit these Online Resources

MY Art Memory Project

MY Art Memory Project

The first comprehensive initiative to digitally document the history of performing arts in Malaya-Malaysia. The archive contains data on theatre and dance productions from the 1950s to the present, oral history podcasts with pioneering practitioners, critical resources, and a timeline of arts and cultural censorship in Malaysia.

Visit Website

Arts Education Archive Malaysia

Arts Education Archive Malaysia

An online resource tracing the development of non-formal arts education programmes in Malaysia since the 1970s. Spanning four decades, the archive contains articles, interpretations, and publications on children’s theatre, theatre-in-education, place-based and heritage education projects, as well as reflections from artists, educators, and participants.

Visit Website