ARTISTS
New Zero Art Space
Feb 24 - Mar 03, 2019
Written by Misao Kasamatsu, Translated by AURA Art
Located in the southern part of Yangon, Yaw Min Gyi is a popular area of this fashionable town where hotels and restaurants for foreigners stand side by side. For about a week from 24th February to 3rd March 2019 at New Zero Art Space, an art gallery in the Yaw Min Gyi area, there was a solo exhibition 'Culprits, Victims, Dreamers' by Myanmar-born artist, Satt Aung T.T. This was his fourth solo exhibition on the subject of war and peace.
About 10 acrylic paintings were introduced at the exhibition, so the number of works was not so great. However, Satt Aung's art is characterized by each piece being of a large size. His works, which have a width of 180 cm x 150 cm, etc, and are painted with a brush to every corner of a large canvas that is as tall as his own height, have an indescribable power.
The canvas covering the entire wall, and the children of Myanmar.
The solo exhibition, which is literally translated as 'Culprits, Victims, Dreamers', shows the works that dealt with the leaders who created the war and the people who became its victims. In these paintings, red colors- reminiscent of blood, and black colors- reminiscent of dark shadows are often used, and the darkness of human society is admirably is reflected, in combination with his surrealistic style.
The painting 'Hitler', in which Adolf Hitler, a former German Prime Minister and infamous dictator, is depicted holding his right hand upwards. There is also a knife in the top of the painting, and there are two hands as if they are begging, with a lady lying underneath them. Hitler's gaze looks upward, and the 'victim' does not seem to be in his line of sight.
'The Last Dinner of Barbarians' is a piece that depicts the relationship between war and peace by replacing war-waging people with barbarians, and peace with birds, which means their meals. When will the birds of peace be freed from the barbarians, when will they be free, when will their meals end? Satt Aung also expresses his doubts about an endless war in the sarcastic title of the 'Last Dinner'.
'Dreamers' used for the solo exhibitions may refer to those who dream of peace. In places without war, children live full of joy with a free mind, and without anxiety. If the world does not have war, the kids crying and hungry, are having fun laughing, the burnt and empty village is green again and lively, and birds are flying in the sky.
What Satt Aung imagines is such a free and joyful world without war. The expressions of the children flying around the blue sky, grabbed by a large folded paper crane, are bright, and the earth is covered in nature. Everywhere on the canvas, heart or peace symbols are painted, and no fearful element is visible anywhere.
In his work on the theme of war criminals and their victims, many of the humans that appear there are portrayed in a state in which parts of their bodies or their whole bodies are separated like parts of a collage. In contrast, in the work on the theme of peace, all human bodies are depicted normally. He is probably trying to visually and sensibly imply that both war destroys human beings, and peace allows human beings to stay alive through art.
New Zero Art Space
A gallery located in the northeastern part of the Yaw Min Gyi area, which is popular with foreigners living in Yangon. In addition to a permanent general store on the second floor, events such as art classes are held regularly.
