Rakhine sailboats

Credit Line: Gift of Ian Holliday 2023, Collection of SMU

This artwork is part of 25x25 Campus Art Tour.

Listen to the audio description of the artwork here.

Transcript:

Shwe Thein is known for his series of riverine scenes with traditional sailboats. These emerge from memories of his hometown, Kyauk Taw in Rakhine State, which sits along the Kaladan River that connects to the Bay of Bengal. The river facilitates the transport of people and goods up and down the towns that dot it.

In this painting, an early morning scene at a dock, a line of sailboats washed in the colours of the dawn sky sits calmly on still waters. The sailboats are waiting patiently for another day of travel and trade. Some have their patchworked sails already open, standing tall and wide against the soft rosy sky. These sails would have been pieced together from discarded umbrellas and other fabric scraps, resulting in the splendidly colourful sails. The colour of night, a dark purple, still lingers in the waters like a shadow. Yet all the elements—sky, sea and boats—meld together nebulously through the use of broad impressionistic brush strokes applied with a palette knife, evoking a sense of harmony.

As a child, the artist himself used to travel overnight in a sailboat on the river with his trader-father to make it in time for the morning markets. Some of the goods his father traded in were umbrellas, slippers and clothes. However, these sailboats are now fast disappearing, having been replaced with motorboats.

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Shwe Thein attended the State School of Fine Arts in Yangon from 2001 to 2004, and is presently based in Yangon. His series of riverine scenes with traditional sailboats emerge from memories of his hometown Kyauk Taw, Rakhine State which sits along the Kaladan River. He used to sail overnight with his father, a trader, to sell wares and products at the morning markets. However, these sailboats are now fast disappearing, having been replaced by motorboats. In his seascapes, sky, sea and boats meld together nebulously through the use of broad impressionistic brush strokes.

The SMU Art Collection has over 300 paintings from Myanmar donated by Ian Holliday. A specialist in Burmese politics, Holliday assembled the Thukhuma Collection which comprises of Burmese paintings largely dating from the transitional decade of the 2010s, presenting multiple artistic perspectives on a society in reform. On display at School of Social Sciences and Li Ka Shing Library, the gifted paintings depict the people, culture and land, from the streets of Yangon and rural peripheries to political icons and indigenous deities.