THE DOCUMENTATION PROJECT FOR MYANMAR CONTEMPORARY ART, VOL:5, 2025

Project Title:
MORPHOLOGY OF THE CLOUD: Artistic Responses of the invisibility Myanmar, 2023-2024

^{Dear Son by Kelvin Shine Ko, A contemporary theater performance, 2024
All images courtesy of the artists.}

Overview

Morphology of the Cloud is a new volume of the documentation series of contemporary art practices in Myanmar during a time of profound political, social, and emotional upheaval in 2023-2024. Organized by the School of Contemporary Art Project (SOCA) and supported by the Aura Contemporary Art Foundation and a virtual museum IMoCA (Initial Museum of Contemporary Art Myanmar), the project seeks to capture and reflect the shifting landscapes—both literal and metaphorical—of a country grappling with instability, memory, and resilience in mind which is cannot seen in real. Drawing inspiration from the cloud as a metaphor for transformation, ephemerality, and interconnection, the project brings together multidisciplinary works that speak to the complexities of social history, identity, and environment.

This program also functions as an urgent archive, preserving artistic responses from the local perspectives—a period marked by invisible violence, silenced voices, and resilient artistic expressions that resist erasure. Through the moving image, sound, performance, painting, sculpture and photography, AI, and multi-disciplinary practices, Morphology of the Cloud weaves together a tapestry of narratives emerging from the time within and beyond Myanmar.
Featured Artworks (Brief)

1. Record of Rain by Thee Oo Thazin & Lauren Smith

A poetic visual work that uses handmade paper created from rainwater collected in Myanmar and the UK. The drawings and compositions interweave historical poems, traditional weather lore, and lived experiences. Rain, as both a physical and symbolic element, becomes a medium of connection between geographies and times—evoking memory, displacement, and shared vulnerability.
https://www.instagram.com/theeoothazin/?hl=en  

2. Voyage by li li k.s.a

A sonic and visual journey into a speculative cosmos. Using AI-generated landscapes and haunting soundscapes, Voyage explores the metaphorical decline of Earth through abstract visual metaphors of destruction and disintegration. The work reflects on humanity’s fractured relationship with the planet, evoking sensations of awe, grief, and exile.
https://www.imocam.org/artists/li-li-k-s-a

3. What We Remember, When We Remember by Rita Khin

A photographic archive of personal testimonies, hidden narratives, and unspoken histories. Cloaked in silence and fear, these images challenge the enforced forgetfulness and collective trauma that Myanmar continues to endure. This work confronts the cycles of violence and brings attention to the invisible psychological landscapes of a wounded nation.
https://www.verzascafoto.com/rita-khin  

4. Dear Son by Kelvin Shine Ko

A contemporary theater performance that traces the fragile threads between nature and human relationships. Through evocative movement and visual storytelling, Dear Son unravels themes of love, separation, longing, and ecological loss. It is an intimate meditation on the vulnerability of both people and the environment in a time of crisis.
https://focusweb.org/the-art-of-remembering-reimagining-home-through-performance-art

5. Samsara by Sai Moon

A specific traditional game of ethnic people from Shan state, created by Sai Mon. Through symbolic use of natural and everyday materials, this project reveals the deep connection between traditional practices, social structures, and environment—offering insight into how indigenous knowledge systems adapt and endure under political and environmental pressure.

6. Scenes from the Street by Aung Win Htut - Andy Chen

A photographic series capturing the urban and rural pulse of Myanmar under duress. Through metaphorical and poetic imagery, these street photographs reflect the darkness that looms over cities and rural areas. The work documents the fluctuating “political weather” and the quiet resistance embedded in daily life.

7. Birth, 2023 by Aung See Phyo

A sculpture/installation using found objects, such as a pile of raw cotton sheets at the centre of gallery floor give a dynamic attraction to the viewer’s ambiguity to revive the pre-existed outcome of repeating the process that creates the intimate sphere of birth.

About the Artists:

Thee Oo Thazin, b-1993, is a visual artist from Yangon, Myanmar. She studied Fine Arts at LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore. Her inspirations mainly come from wildlife, flora and fauna, literature, and mostly the human body. She explores and experiments with the communication between her and the viewers, mostly using text and image work, and mostly, she uses watercolour, gouache, ink, and digital media. She has participated in many group exhibitions, including the Building Bridges exhibition, the Midsummer exhibition, and the Word Therapy exhibition. She had her first solo exhibition in 2022 at the Goethe Institute Myanmar. She is now exploring paper sculpture and animation as new mediums. In recent years, climate change has become an important subject matter in her artworks. In 2023, she received a CTC grant from the British Council and produced 24 artworks about changing rain patterns in Myanmar and the UK. Currently, she has been researching the relationship between water resources and communities. She did the first piece of her series “Crops for Island. Island for Crops.” in early 2025 when she was staying at Songkhla Art Centre’s Artist Residency in Thailand.

li li k.s.a (*1990 in Kachin, Myanmar) is an interdisciplinary artist, a composer, improviser, and violinist. After graduating in theology in Myanmar, he briefly studied a pre-study programme at Dr. Hoch’s conservatoire in Frankfurt Germany,and subsequently composition with Frank Gerhardt at the music academy in Kassel, Germany but moved back to Myanmar without graduating. In 2021, he moved to Kachin where he helped to set up an artist residency programme in order to provide a safe space for persecuted artists in Myanmar. In 2022 he was able to relocate to Paris under a scholarship by the Atelier des Artistes en Exil. He is also a member of the collective experimental group called Noise in Yangon. In 2023, he was invited to perform at DAAD-Gallery in Berlin. He was also a co-organizer of “we are the seeds- The art of Myanmar spring revolution”. He was also a co- curator for We are the seeds - A Lantern of hope at DAAD gallery. He also composed the piece 3 Loops for the Ensemble Apartment House. In 2024 his installation artwork, “The Red Macadam”, received an honorary mention from Ars Electronica. He currently holds a residency from the Haute Ecole des arts du Rhin, Strasbourg and living as an exile artist in France.  

Kelvin Shine Ko (b-2001) is a performance artist, theatre maker and Butoh practitioner from Myanmar and currently based in Thailand. He began studying theatre in Thailand in 2023 with LanYim Theatre Group and the Asia Youth Theatre Festival (AYTF). His directed theatre work was presented at AYTF 2024 and Chiang Mai Design Week 2024, exploring themes of love, loss, longing, and the fragility of both nature and human relationships. His performance photo- series “Body and journey”, 2023, participated in the multimedia exhibition, When Spirits Flow Backwards, organized by the Myanmar Photo Archive(MPA) in Yangon, and the work also exhibited in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He was invited to perform at the undisclosed territory # 14 (The Evolution of Rasa) performance art event. He performed as Home tile in December 2024. His works often exposed everyday life, nature, and human existence through body movement.

Ri is a lens-based visual artist based in Myanmar. They work on stories that are entrenched upon being part of a queer community and intimate relationships. Along with this, they work with visual poems, geopolitical landscapes, and stories that have connections to their country’s complex political situations. Their artworks have been showcased at international photo festivals and venues, such as the Bangkok Arts and Culture Center, Jakarta Photo Festival, Kochi-Muziris Biennale in Kochi, India, Verzasca Foto Festival in Switzerland, and Asia Art Biennale in Taiwan. They recently joined a 50-day artist-in-residency program in Switzerland, supported by Pro Helvetia. They were also selected to be part of Joop Swart Master Class 2024 organized by the World Press Photo Foundation.

Sai Moon Sai Lone, (b-1978), graduated in BA (Hons) Archaeology in Taunggyi, southern Shan state of Myanmar. Founder of Cafe’ Sake (Art+Coffee) and co-founded and member of Yoma Art space in Taunggyi. Most of his artworks are combined with diverse culture in intangible and tangible cultural practices. He is of shan ethnic origion, one of the major ethnic groups of Myanmar as the 2nd largest ethnic group, and has varieties of customs and behaviors. His work as a costumes design using natural materials and symbolic 
response to the natural and social environment, which inspires the tradition of shan. He is interested in creating interactive work between human and natural materials. As an artist, he did not believe in the obstruction of freedom of expression. He mentioned the statement of artist Ana Mendieta, saying, “My art is grounded on the belief in me, universal energy which runs through all beings and matter, all space and time”. That is what he believes in Art.

Andy Chen-Aung Win Htut was born in Mandalay, Myanmar in 1983. He is a street photographer whose work captures the raw, fleeting moments of urban life with striking authenticity. Based in Yangon, Myanmar, his lens focuses on the interplay of humanity, architecture, and light, revealing the unseen poetry of everyday existence. Andy’s photographs have been featured in LFI Gallery and LFI magazine. Shooting in color and B&W, Andy emphasizes contrast, texture, and the candid beauty of unposed subjects. His process relies on patience and intuition, often returning to the same locations to uncover hidden layers of meaning.

Aung See Phyo began his journey in the streets, choosing walls and public spaces as his canvas for aggressive, vivid, and experimental letterforms. Since 2010, under the mentorship of Nyein Chan Su and Toe Wai, he dedicated a decade to exploring complex graffiti lettering, developing a unique visual language rooted in rebellion and improvisation. Over the years, he built strong connections with the international graffiti community, participating in global underground graffiti collectives and organizations. In 2017, he graduated from LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore and went on to establish Void Studio, a space for his expanding digital and design-based practices. Aung’s work reflects a tension between aesthetics and anti-aesthetic impulses. While he finds joy in cliché beauty, he remains deeply fascinated by disruptive visual languages and archival subcultures. This internal contradiction-between personal taste and philosophical stance-emerges as a recurring theme in his work. Since 2019, Aung has shifted his focus toward canvas-based works, experimental media, and unconventional image-making techniques. His first solo exhibition, Filling a Glass Half Water, was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2023, since then he continues to push a new phase in his exploration of form, perception, and visual disobedience.