KHIN THWAY

Khin is a Fine Arts student based in Myanmar

“It’s important for me to share something of my own culture. It is powerful to show people without words. You don’t need to travel to a country to see one’s culture. You can just see it from art, which is really powerful. I want to use my creativity in a way that makes sense for my people, my culture. So I want to become an artist for that, like a representative, but in a creative way.”

Chloe Briggs (CB): During your admissions I remember thinking how seriously you take being an artist. Why is it so important to you to follow this path?

Khin Thway (KT): I think it’s important for me to share something of my own culture. It is powerful to show people without words. You don’t need to travel to a country to see one’s culture, you can see it from art, which is really powerful. I want to use my creativity in a way that makes sense for my people, my culture. So I want to become an artist for that, like a representative, but in a creative way.

CB : Amazing. And what have you learned about the cultures of your classmates?

KT: Their cultures are so different, yet everything intertwined with each other. The fact that we’re from different parts of the world and learning from each other, it’s really interesting and good to see.

CB: Could you describe a moment during the course where something opened up for you that you’d never considered before, a new possibility for your work?

KT: When I first started it was more like, I wanted to do this, I wanted to do that, I was all over the place, but over time, once I started to learn my strengths and my weaknesses I actually found my artistic expression which is different from others. I have an interest in large scale projects.

C: Your work is very spatial. That is exciting! You have shown projects that really give us a sense of space and possibility, what are you most excited about in the future?

KT: In the future I would really like to collaborate with artists that are very different from each other and me, but then we make one major project and make it work - one big and impactful project. That’s my goal. Yeah.

CB: I could see you as a curator, you know. It is not just one work you are interested in, but the connections between many works and how it’s shown in space.

KT: I wanted to be a curator when I was young, too.

CB: It wasn’t your original choice to take the Foundation program online, but if you could say something to yourself at the beginning of the course, what would you say to you? What would you advise yourself?

KT: Don’t let anything get in the way of your creativity, online or offline, an opportunity is given to you either way to connect with people that you can be inspired from, and you can talk to. I have limited materials online, but I’m not going to limit myself.

Keep creating, that is the thing. Because when I first started I was a little hopeless, because I was like, ‘Oh, I can’t get these materials’ or, ‘How can I get to know other people virtually?’, you know. But then, now I know that it is equally as possible to do the course online.

CB: You as a group have inspired me, you have shown me even more of what is possible!