Pyae Phyo Thant Nyo / Artist Interview – Abstraction of Breathing

^{All images courtesy of the artist}

^{Curated, Edited, Translated and Design by SOCA (School of Contemporary Art Project) in collaboration with AURA Contemporary Art Foundation Aung Myat Htay, Yuto Yabumoto (AURA).}

Pyae Phyo Thant Nyo (Interdisciplinary Artist)

My name is Pyae Phyo Thant Nyo. I’m currently a final-year photography student. What I think of art—I think I am very different from my first-year, now that it’s my third year. Before, I only wanted to study photography because I wanted to take a lot of good photos. I knew contemporary art but wasn’t that insightful on it—I wasn’t critical. Now, I think my work is reflective of our modern world and critical of it. Medium isn’t very important to me. About being Asian, coming to study from a faraway place, inner struggles. I haven’t forgotten any of it. This piece is about the fashion industry. For example, there’s Channel, Gucci, Comme des Garçon; they release yearly fashion series. These never sold out. They don’t keep the unsold products nor donate them. So it’s very polluted. To point out this absurdity, I burned these products and wear the ash. The performance is based on Japanese Butoh dance—wearing and coloring the ashes of the burned clothes on the body. In other words, there are many interesting artifacts and materials and I’m interested in exploring different possibilities with them.

London/ Yangon based artist Pyae Phyo Thant Nyo is into self exploration and spirituality. His artistic practice shifts between photography/video, painting, sculpture and installation, contributing with a poetic and plastic vision about dangerous or conflicting situations.He likes exploring and telling stories. This multidisciplinary artist is currently studying at Camberwell College of Arts, London and is a part of Yangon based art collective BOUHINGA. He is interested in uncommon and isolated landscapes; being time, memory, mankind and nature.
　(Source: Myanm/art Facebook page)

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