lasalle graduate show 2020

1. Check out the next generation of artists and designers

Like every other sector, education at every level has been severely impacted by the pandemic. It’s been a rough time especially for the graduating batch of art school students – who, in ordinary times, would have seen their months of hard work exhibited around this time of the year. One institution, Lasalle College of the Arts, has decided to create a full website for all of its graduating students across its eight different schools. We’ve only gone through a small portion of the over 800 students’ works available on show but what we’ve seen so far, it’s been seriously impressive.

The Lasalle digital graduate showcase is ongoing. Check it out here

2. A prestigious film festival is available for free screening

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNzUfiiuNzE

In the film sector, this time of the year is usually occupied by one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world: Cannes. Yet like everything else, it’s been cancelled for now but film fans can turn instead to We Are One: A Global Film Festival, a new 10-day digital film initiative started by Tribeca Enterprises and YouTube. More than 100 films will be screened for free on YouTube and it’s a really interesting initiative as some of the best film festivals from around the world are jointly participating, including Cannes, Venice, Sundance, Toronto, New York, BFI London and Locarno.

One under-the-radar gem we’d recommend watching is short film Atlantiques by French director Mati Diop. If you don’t know who she is, Diop made history in 2019 by becoming the first black female director to be in contention for the Cannes Film Festival’s highest prize with her debut feature film Atlantics (don’t confuse the two).

Ongoing from now till June 7 at various times. Check out the full line-up here

3. Try this famous dish

Anyone who’s watched Bong Joon-Ho’s Oscar-winning Parasite will attest that it’s not a movie easily forgotten and one of the many things that went viral from the film was the ram-don – a portmanteau created for the movie based on the Korean comfort food dish jjapaguri. Now if you’re the type who doesn’t fancy or know how to cook, you can just order the dish that has over 200K hits on Google – better work fast, as it’s only available at The Projector this week.

Ongoing; head here to order.

4. Check out two new local plays

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There is a certain poignancy in having ‘Lost & Found’ as the theme for what would have been The Studios 2020. The year so far has been tumultuous; there has been great loss in every sense of the word, which has exposed the vulnerability and stark fragility of this globalised world – the only one we know. Before the circuit breaker measures here in Singapore came about, The Studios team was still working towards realising a physical season of theatre. And in such a short time, we find ourselves now in the middle of our month-long online season of Singapore theatre, featuring six productions from past seasons and two of the original works for The Studios 2020 – a recorded edition of Lost Cinema 20/20 by Brian Gothong Tan and an audio presentation of The Heart Comes to Mind by Checkpoint Theatre. In some small way, we hope that bringing these productions online passes on some of the goodness that we have experienced in this annual season of theatre at Esplanade over the past 17 years. The closure of our theatres and the inability to gather in a darkened familiar space has left us adrift, with sobering ramifications extending to the livelihoods of those who work in it, and the lives of all who love it. We look forward to the day when we are able to live dangerously in this safe space again. Thank you for joining us! 🔗 to full season info in bio. • #offstage #esplanadesg #thestudios #mydurian

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The Studios is the Esplanade’s annual feature dedicated to local theatre and while we’ve been watching a lot of local companies upload archival works, here, they’ll be debuting two new productions that were originally slated to debut back in April – but were of course shut down thanks to the circuit-breaker measures. Look forward to acclaimed multimedia artist Brian Gothong Tan’s Lost Cinema 20/20 – an exploration of the role of dreams as the cinema of our subconscious mind, as well as Checkpoint Theatre’s The Heart Comes to Mind which follows a father and daughter trying to come to terms with the loss of their wife and mother respectively.

Lost Cinema 20/20 premieres on June 6, 3pm. Catch it here. The Heart Comes to Mind premieres on June 6, 8pm. Catch it here

5. Educate yourself on Black Lives Matter

It’s likely that many of us do not fully understand the history of black oppression in the United States – though we didn’t need in-depth knowledge to empathise and recoil in horror at the brutality of George Floyd’s murder. However, if you wish to go beyond posting a black photo on your grid – which is actually not very helpful to the cause, however well-intentioned – here is a helpful list of books to read, people to follow and even movies for all ages to watch to get a more textured understanding of the long-running situation.

Illustrative cover image courtesy of Lasalle College of The Arts graduate Felicia Agatha. Check out more of her works here