En route: Southeast Asia: Atreyu Moniaga, Guo-Liang Tan, Santi Wangchuan, Sawangwongse Yawnghwe, Soe Yu Nwe, Zai Kuning
Ota Fine Arts Shanghai is pleased to present En route: Southeast Asia, an exhibition featuring artists from Indonesia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand. The exhibition hopes to provide a window into contemporary art from Southeast Asia, where ideas of mythology, cultural traditions, heritage, identity, and history are actively interrogated.
Sawangwongse Yawnghwe (b.1971, Burma) was born in Shan State, known today as Myanmar. His grandfather, Sao Shwe Thaik, was the first president of the Union of Burma. Yawnghwe spent much of his youth in Thailand, and subsequently escaped to Canada, after a failed assassination attempt on his father in 1985. Thereafter, Yawnghwe found refuge in Amsterdam, where he works quietly in much anonymity. The paintings "Day trip at Southeast Asian Peninsular Games, Rangoon, 1961" and "The Guests" reveal simultaneously, Yawnghwe's personal family history and the complex issues surrounding Myanmar's unsettling political history. Taking his cue from archival images from early mid-twentieth century Burma, and American artist, Barnett Newman, his paintings are composed of painted photographs that are branded with grey stripes. The ambiguous figures and the fuzzy quality of the image hint of decay; a decaying of the photographs, and also that of cultural heritage and nation. Intrinsic to Yawnghwe's works is a continuous mining of personal memories, familial ties and identity that are inextricably linked to his nation's history.
In contrast, Atreyu Moniaga's (b. 1987, Indonesia) paintings embody the fantasies of urban dwellers from a younger generation. Moniaga graduated with a degree in Communications and Visual Design from the Jakarta Institute of the Arts (IKJ), and now takes on multiple roles as artist, photographer, illustrator and actor. His otherworldly compositions reveal a whimsical universe of mystical creatures, ornamental plants, and spirited characters that one may associate with animation films. His most recent paintings, "Serendipity" and "Faux Nonchalant" are explorations into the medium of acrylic paint, and a fresh palette of pastel colours. The characters and creatures in his paintings express cheeky yet sinister expressions, exposing a complex layering of various emotions such as fear, anxiety, joy and calmness, which the artist experienced in the process of making these new works.
Santi Wangchuan (b. 1988, Thailand) recalls and revitalizes the handweaving traditions of the Ubon Ratchathani province located in Northeast Thailand. Wangchuan learned how to weave from his grandmother and mother at a young age, and after studying art history, he sought to re-engage the traditional craft that is gradually disappearing with rapid urbanisation. His works are interwoven with collective memories, folk stories, religious practices and objects that are native to his hometown. Closer examinations of his sculptures, "Weaving of Memorable Space (No.5)" and "Weaving of Memorable Space (No.9)", reveal the presence of fishing baskets and antique weaving tools, reminding its audience of an old way of life in Thailand and the larger Southeast Asia.
On the other hand, Guo-Liang Tan (b.1980, Singapore) utilizes aeronautical fabric – a translucent, water-resistant synthetic polyester textile – in his work. "Slow Release II" and "Sand Drift" were created by layering transparent colours of diluted acrylic paint atop the water-resistant surface. Unlike conventional painting, which uses a brush for direct mark-making, Tan's work comprises stains and traces made indirectly by the pooling of paint and by placing objects on the horizontal ground to create imprints. As Tan continues to explore the evolving notions of painting today, his paintings facilitate an exchange of ideas on what constitutes painting, and how paintings are made in Southeast Asia and beyond.
Using ceramics as a key medium, Soe Yu Nwe (b. 1989, Myanmar) explores the cycles in mother nature and, Myanmar's heritage and spiritual traditions. A primary and recurring motif in Soe's work is the serpent. This interest originates from her explorations for a self-symbol, and the serpent being her Chinese Zodiac sign. In much of Asian mythology, the serpent is associated with regeneration, shape shifting, fertility and feminine prowess. Yet Soe's sculptures also reveal creatures plagued with fragmented edges, thorns and a certain fragility, offering us some visibility into Soe's experience growing up in a conservative society, and her longing for wholeness in her multicultural and incomplete identity formation.
For nearly two decades, Zai Kuning (b. 1964, Singapore) has been working with indigenous groups of people, namely the Orang Laut and Orang Asli, and has created bodies of works inspired by his research and interactions with them. The Orang Laut, otherwise known as the "people of the sea", were nomadic sea gypsies that occupied the maritime zones surrounding Singapore, Malaysia and the Riau Islands, Indonesia. The Orang Asli communities are the indigenous population of the Malaysia Peninsula. Zai's earlier drawings, especially those from the "Ombak Hitam" series (2016), were characterized by their monochromatic tones. Since 2020, his drawings began to incorporate hues of red, green, and yellow, with greater vibrancy and depths. The works in this exhibitionwere created with natural pigments including turmeric, chilli powder, and traditional batik dye, and Zai's abstract forms resonate and echo with voices, memories, and a yearning for one's ancestral home.
These Southeast Asian countries — from which these artists are from — are diverse, yet bounded together geographically and historically. Some of these areas are developed and cosmopolitan, while others are more in sync with their ancestral heritage and cultures. Ota Fine Arts Shanghai hopes to offer visibility of the region's artists to our audiences, and to articulate some of the differentiated stories of Southeast Asia.
