Why have there been no Great Myanmar Contemporary Artists?
This essay was contributed to the Jakarta Biennale 2021 blog, "Moe Thauk", covering Myanmar contexts, arranged by Nathalie Johnston.
Myanmar Contemporary Artists have long been accused of being raw, unimaginative, stuck in the past and stuck in portraying the imagery of blood, gore, suffering, loss and violence in talking about the traumas they have experienced under Military dictatorship for several decades. There is no denying that there is some truth to this assessment, evidently most performance artists who concern themselves with blood, mess and struggles till today, and less with reconciliation, critical thinking, posing questions/ solutions. However, I am going to further argue here that a conversation about why Myanmar Contemporary Art is “not so great” or “stuck in the past” has to also be a conversation about demands and reactions from various stakeholders, spaces the artists have been given, the dialogues they have been involved in (or not involved in), and the narratives that they have been put and seen under.
Featured Essay on Jakarta Biennale Esok, “Moe Thauk” Blog.
