Sawangwongse Yawnghwe

Myanmar / Nova Contemporary

Sawangwongse Yawnghwe’s (b. 1971) works repeatedly evoke historical figures and/or past events. His paintings seem to freeze a moment in time and appear blurred, reduced or camouflaged in some way. They are often based on family photographs, reports or film stills, which the artist non-psychical appropriates from his family archive and memory or finds in his research process. Like a form of political currency, they critique the existing power structures rather than simply representing or describing them.