Glimmer in the Mist

by Aung Myat Htay

Every country has its own unique experience with the development of contemporary art. Eastern and Western art philosophies have evolved and given rise to new art concepts and techniques. Art is always in motion. The time and context in which art is created has a significant impact on art itself.

Adaptability and contentment take up an important place in the psyche of Myanmar society. Everyday, peo ple learn to be content. In 1921, a young Myanmar artist called Ba Nyan studied Western realist painting in Lon don. Since then, Myanmar artists have always invented something of their own by incorporating influences from the West. However, Myanmar artists today have difficulty doing the same thing like their predecessors. One reason is everything about art has changed in the 21st century.

When we talk about education as an important pillar of the society that was knocked down by the one-party so cialist government and a succession of military regimes that came later over the past 60 years, art education was also one aspect of education that was hit very hard. Today there are artists trying to do something new and different. But they are just a small number and not strong enough. Art education in Myanmar today is not up to the international standards.

Despite all this, we are seeing a growing number of small groups of artists in the contemporary Myanmar art scene. There are also other groups still managing to sur vive. They are from the generation that burst onto the scene in the 90’s. Most of them received support from non-government organizations that worked with artists. These artists went through a very difficult time under the control of the military regime, but somehow managed to get connected with international artists.

The military dictatorship ended in 2012. But freedom and opportunities for artists are still big issues. There have been a lot of tension and uncertainties during the polit ical transition. Doubts are still looming large. There are articles in the constitution that limit and threaten free dom of expression. The country seems freer on the surface, but at its core there are threats and challenges. Art is one sector that has been paid least attention during the reconstruction process that has started since 2015. We can probably take encouragement from public art events, literary festivals and urban decorations, which never happened in the past. However, these events and festivals may have been used for political propaganda instead of promoting art.

Art is not a priority in the minds of Myanmar citizens. It can be observed that the government is still ignoring art. This makes people not see how a good art education coupled with critical thinking can make a difference. Another issue is alternative art events have stopped when the new government came to power. Artists and festival organizers need to find new ways, new solutions. Therefore, it still needs support and cooperation. It can be concluded that Myanmar art cannot develop with out depending on international system. If the country can reform its education system and place new ap proaches in art education starting now, we can expect a better future for Myanmar art.

Looking Back on "Melting Boundary"

This exhibition was organized in the manner that is not familiar to the local audience. It did not feature works by famous artists and the artworks in the show had not used media and techniques that are common. The audience was mainly young people and those from other artistic and scholarly fields. The mainstream art community in the country has its own inclinations and has yet to ac knowledge or accept new art forms.

Melting Boundary featured works from three young art ists and emphasized the differences in the media they use and their professions. MaycoNaing’s photographs deal with identity issues that concern everybody. Her ID

photos show the faces of other people as well as herself. One work compares the life of a laywoman with that of a nun. It examines the role of clothes in creating one’s identity. Does one become a nun once she decides to put on the pink robe? Does it mean she can change her identity? Will it also change the way she thinks, the way she is? MaycoNaing has been working as a professional photographer for many years and has become fascinat ed with human faces and emotions those faces conjure up. In this exhibition, she installed a photo booth where the audience could make their own ID photos. Perhaps, these self-portraits/ID photos give us a glimpse into the relationship between time, technology and existential conditions. The audience was eager to take their own ID photos and became part of the exhibition. This created an interesting physical dynamic for the exhibition. All the societal systems and time we have gone through, all the uncertainties about our identities.

The video installation of KrizChannyein who studied film making at Nanyang University, Singapore, reveals the dialog between Myanmar culture and social sphere. KrizChannyein shot a short video around Yangon. In his video, a young girl is seen playing cane ball in the mid dle of the city with people bustling about around her. All these people are walking backward in the opposite direction. In this installation, KrizChannyein hung oversize cane balls with red and Green Light in front of the screen. The viewers needed to create some kind of coordination to be able to see the screen behind the cane balls.

NapatVatanakuljara, a young artist from Thailand, put up a multimedia installation which is about a tree and himself. He tried to construct his own identity from his family history and their beliefs. And everything pointed to one thing: a pomegranate tree. His work invited the audience to build the story from small entry points he provided. He also incorporated his research experience in Yangon into his work. He visited shops where flower pots and plants are sold, and talked to the people who came to those shops. He looked for people who had a strong personal relationship with trees like him. When he discovered one, he wrote down the name of the person and the name of the tree on the picture of his pome granate tree. There can be so much that a tree and a person share with each other. His research on the pome granate tree has not stopped here.

He collected stories about pomegranate trees from East ern and Western history and from Christian, Buddhist and Jewish texts. When the Spanish conquered Mexico in AD 1521, they planted pomegranate trees marking the be ginning of a new world. In Judaism, people believe that Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden because they ate the fruit from a pomegranate tree. Some people believe that there are 613 seeds in a pome granate and it makes a good new year. When Zen Buddhism was first established in China in 1195, they planted numerous pomegranate trees around the temples. In Is lam, pomegranate trees are from heaven and prophet Mohammed told his followers to guard themselves from jealousy and hatred by eating pomegranates.

In sum, this exhibition explored new ideas about identi ty without rehashing the old ideas that most people in the society are comfortable with. We hope that this is only the beginning of the exploration. Past and present are fluid and flow into each other, like older generations pass along their knowledge to new generations. In art, boundaries that lie between different ages, media and techniques have mingled. This will help fill the creative void that we have in Myanmar. For this reason, it is im portant to find and support new generation artists.

Translated from Burmese by: Mg Day

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