"THE FINAL 30" (18th to 31st December, 2010)

Photos of all 30 Paintings From The 4th Annual Competition "TUN FOUNDATION'S BEST PAINTINGS OF THE YEAR FOR 2010"

Remarks by this year's panel of judges.

The Tun Foundation Bank Best Paintings of the Year 2010, organized by the Tun Foundation Bank, concluded its fourth year as one of Myanmar’s much anticipated art event with an overwhelming 378 entries. Compared to previous years, the judges observed that this year’s entries were of high quality in both technique and concept engaging with a wide range of artistic expressions. Indeed, the judges commented that this year’s Best Painting of the Year reflected the current state of Myanmar art.

This year’s competition was a watershed in the history of the competition, marked by a shift towards experimentation and critical thinking in a number of works engaging with the realities of changing social conditions in Myanmar. Interesting themes emerging from several works address global issues concerning the global warming, and the increasing influence of popular culture from outside Myanmar such as Japanese anime, manga and the mass media, as well as local issues on heritage and identity. The global-local dialogue shown in many of the works provided entry points into understanding the changing social fabric of Myanmar’s society in a year fresh after its first elections in 20 years.

Clinching the top prize is Thura Aung’s Influence Life, which manifests global-local tensions in Myanmar. Influence Life critically reflects on the influence of foreign popular culture, particularly Japanese anime and manga disseminated through mass media such as the internet and television on youths here. Thura Aung appropriates iconic Japanese anime such as the popular Naruto, an ongoing Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masashi Kishimoto in the background of his painting, which is fore grounded by a young boy dressed as a traditional nineteenth century Burmese soldier wearing a pointed helmet and wielding a sword in his right hand. Yet the boy is at the same time ‘undressed’ as he is wearing nothing else other than the helmet on his head. His left hand is clenched tight and his facial expression one that exudes uncertainty and a lack of confidence. The top-down perspective creates an illusion of a disproportionately large head in relation to his lower body in tension with the flat background of the Japanese mango characters. The flatness of the Japanese manga characters in Influence Life draws references to Takashi Murakami, a contemporary Japanese artist who appropriates themes from mass media and popular culture to construct what he calls Superflat paintings that comments on Japanese subcultures and consumerism. The flatness is contrasted by the three-dimensional depiction of the boy whose eyes asks us: can the new generation of Myanmar youths face the world with confidence in their own culture in the face of ever increasingly influential global pop cultures?

Finally by Hla Phone is the first runner up painting in this competition. It breaks new ground in how the artist plays with the relationship between text and image and reveals a critical attitude towards the unquestioning assumption of the stability of meaning conveyed by images and language. The artist deconstructs his own painting by demystifying artistic creation as a heroic effort of a genius by inscribing the ‘cast’ on his painting as part of the work. His innovative melting of his picture, sets the stage for an imaginary plot for the viewer. His cast include the producer, script, edit, scene and expressionism besides the usual information on a work such as the artist’s name, medium and size of the painting. By casting his painting as a collaborative effort usually more associated with theatre than painting, which is usually understood as a solitary practice, Hla Phone makes visible his artistic processes to the viewer, including his artistic intention to highlight the need to address the social issue of the plight of the elderly who have been neglected, as the artist states that ‘wreckage old vehicles are like aging old people’.

Winning the second runner up spot is Day of Night by Min Yan Naung. The mass of people with indistinct facial features creates a sea of ‘faceless’ people who do not seem to interact with each other. The focus falls on their shoulders, which has been illuminated by a yellow outline, which leads us to question the heavy burden of the unnamed masses of ‘faceless’ workers who are the unnamed heroes of the country.

The artist’s mature handling of the medium is evident in his use of chiaroscuro by contrasting the dark blue tones in the painting’s background with the bright yellow to create an atmosphere of surreal mystery.

The third runner up went to Zin Yaw Aung’s Illusion of Water that exemplifies exceptional painterly qualities grounded in a firm foundation in the mastery of oil painting. The violent gushing of water crashing on the rocks is rendered in hyper-realistic detail. The viewer is enthralled by the artist’s technical virtuosity in creating the illusion of materiality. The texture and properties of both water and rock are manifested convincingly in juxtaposition with the serenity of the duck, who is in the centre of the picture in the face of the rushing water, revealing a calmness in the state of mind amidst pandemonium.

The other 6 paintings who won the Special Consolation Prize category form a total of 10 winners in the Best Painting of the Year 2010. In no order of merit, issue-based works in dialogue with global concerns over the world’s environment reveal how artists in Myanmar remain connected to the world. Yee Yee Khin’s Why…? depicts a scene of waste paper blown about by the wind. The textural qualities of crushed paper is handled convincingly by the artist who creates an apocalyptic picture of a world filled with thrash, a wasteland of nothingness that raises the problem of countries who fail to act on saving the planet.

The theme of the urgent need to conserve water resources was addressed by the rest of the artists using different strategies to convey their messages. WATER… WATER by Win Myint Moe is an issue-based work focusing on the global problem of increasingly scarce clean water for an ever growing world population. The mass of ubiquitous plastic containers (presumably empty) commonly used for water dispensing machines heightens the increasing shortage of clean drinking sources. The lone bird perched on the tap is the only living thing in this picture, comparably smaller than the plastic containers around it. In Nutritious, Tha Pyay Myint Thein renders a still life of two prawns on a platter. The artist employs the strategy of using easily overlooked details, which in this case are the two flies on each of the prawns to draw attention to the problem of water pollution by suggesting how water pollution has affected the quality and safety of seafood supplies for our consumption. Myo Minn Latt adopts a more direct critique of water pollution in From the River. The heads of three fishes are all that is left underlining the reality of dwindling fish stocks due to over fishing, water pollution and other factors that affect the quality of water that these fishes depend on for survival.

Thingyan, which is the New Year water festival celebrated in Myanmar, painted by Min Ohn Mon (Bago) deals with the subject of how water is used as part of cultural festivities. The centrality of water to everyday life goes beyond water as a resource to water as an important part of cultural practices here. Dawai Lay uses a different strategy to underline the importance of water to the people of Myanmar in Boat (10). The lone fisherman on the boat in what appears to be calm waters is a meditative take on water beyond being important source of livelihood to a way of life shaped by the many rivers such as the Irrawaddy.

Collectively, these 6 works selected for the Special Consolation Prize mark a shift towards issue-based artworks centred mostly on the question on the need and more importantly, how to conserve water when clean drinking water is an ever growing global problem. Issue-based artworks provide a pulse on the realities of contemporary life in Myanmar, which would possibly open up debates and interest from the public. Seen from another perspective, there is an ever increasing need for contemporary art to connect with audiences. This competition becomes particularly meaningful as it offers an open platform to attract public interest in contemporary art here, allowing both established and up-and-coming talent to showcase their works that are experimental, critical and firmly rooted in strong techniques. Successful art competitions such as the Turner Prize have been credited with the formation of a whole new art movement such as the Young British Artist (YBA) led by Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. Perhaps time will tell if a similar Young Myanmar Art movement would emerge from the Best Painting of the Year competition in years to come.