We Are Moving

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:

We Are Moving is a painting on canvas by Burmese artist Aung Ko, who lived in Yangon before the military coup on February 1, 2021. The painting is large, and measures about 180 cm height by 180 cm length. It is a photorealistic depiction of a packed crowd seen up close from above. The combination of tightly cropped close-up view and oversized canvas makes the subject life-size in scale.

There are thirteen men, some partially and some fully within frame, huddled closely with their backs to the viewer. More than a few have extended an arm to hold on to the backs and shoulders of those in front, not wanting to get separated from their companions, while also jostling to see what's ahead. Both the viewer and the subjects cannot see beyond the frame of the canvas. The impression is that of standing before the precipice of chaos and confusion.

This scene is based on the fatal bombings on April 15, 2010 at Yangon's Thingyan Water Festival, which killed 10 and injured 170 people. During the festival, revellers gather on the streets and douse themselves with water. The painting portrays the sudden change after an explosion as uncertainty courses through the crowd.

The blasts and photographs of the scene were censored by the state. Aung Ko responded to this censorship and the arrest of photojournalists on suspicion of complicity, with a series of photorealistic paintings made between 2012 and 2013. On this particular painting, he says:

"During Thingyan, I usually take photos from my home on the sixth floor. I gain a different perspective on people moving about. At the time of the explosion, I had a camera ready, so I managed to take photos of sudden changes among the people below. They started to worry if a bomb might explode in their neighbourhood. They became silent. They didn't dare continue their journeys…"

When it was created in 2013, the painting with its ironic juxtaposition of title and image served as an allegory for Myanmar in reform. The great expectations of political reforms in 2011 had given way to reservations on the pace and unevenness of change. With the military coup of 2021, the painting remains as relevant as ever.

--

One of the roles of an artist is to bear witness to events and experiences. In this painting, Myanmar artist Aung Ko captured the tussle and stampede that followed three separate fatal bombings on 15 April 2010 at Yangon's Thingyan water festival. The blasts killed 10 and injured 170 people, and photographs of the scene were censored by the state. The work belongs to an eponymous series of photorealistic paintings made between 2012 and 2013 in response to the arrest of a photojournalist for taking bomb scene pictures.

Aung Ko's tightly cropped photorealistic rendering serves as an emphatic record that captures the claustrophobia, panic and confusion that must have gripped the crowd. It conveys a human jam with hands on another's shoulder as if collectively propelling itself forward in a slow shuffle. Though titled 'We Are Moving', both the viewer and the huddled masses in the painting cannot see beyond the frame of the canvas to where the pressing crowd is moving.

When considered apart from the immediate events that birthed the series, the irony between the title and the image is one that leads to an allegory of post-reformation Myanmar. Great expectations at the end of military rule in 2011 has given way to reservations on the pace and evenness of change.

Aung Ko (b. 1980, Bago Region) is one of Myanmar's leading contemporary artists. A graduate of the University of Culture, Yangon in 2002, he is the founder of the artists-community Thuye'dan Village Art Project which was established in 2007. He has shown at major international art events including the Singapore Biennale 2008, and Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale 2009.

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.