About fear, freedom and performance art in the streets of Myanmar. ‘Examining our history, I realize no artist has actually been imprisoned for doing street performance.’

KL fatigue? See the city differently. We interview Colin Shafer on ‘Everyone Has Hope’, a photography project and exhibition with Burmese refugee children living in KL.

Stepping on the backs of artists. A review of “ROAD”, an exhibition by Myanmar artist Myat Kywat, 12 – 17 June 2010 at newly opened DAGAUNG Gallery in Yangon

Osage, Singapore presents plAy an exhibition of thirteen major players in the Myanmar art scene, highlighting a region often left out of the canon of Asian contemporary art.

poem by Maung Day
photos by Sharon Chin

Hello brother, how are you
And how is your work?
For me everything is fine here…

Thoughts on 2nd Beyond Pressure Performance Art Festival: “The point… is that dreams never come true”.

2nd Beyond Pressure Performance Art Festival: Mighty as the ocean and certain as the tide, the need to express oneself surpasses impenetrable boundaries.

Opening up spaces for transformation: Charting changes in the Myanmar art scene, from socialist rule, to the mid-90s and the present day.

poem by Maung Day

I shouted to them
they looked puzzled and were staring at me
I shouted again
and they kept looking
their eyes were like those watery eyeballs of fishes…

by Sharon Chin

I’m too misanthropic to believe that Earth Hour was much more than a massive, feel-good PR stunt. But as our house dutifully doused the lights during that stipulated hour on 28 March, I found that being plunged into a physical darkness was more welcome than I’d ever anticipated.

It inspired a series of posts on, above and/or around the idea of ‘darkness’. Thoughts on Darkness by various contributors will be released daily. As an introduction, I reproduce here an excerpt of a gmail chat I had with an artist friend in Yangon, Myanmar.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil by RANDY GLEDHILL

I have been back home for some time. When I first returned, I was in the throes of culture shock, sickness and delirium. After the holiday season, the dark wet cold Pacific Northwest winter lulled me a deep hibernation from which I am only now awakening. I have been sleeping as if hypnotized by a somnambulist.

by SHARON CHIN

The first time I heard about Beyond Pressure was when I met Moe Satt in February 2007, during his short residency at Rimbun Dahan. Over dinner one night, our language barriers smoothed over by beer and friendship, he told me about his idea for an international performance festival to be held in Yangon. I remember thinking that ‘Beyond Pressure’ would make a great tattoo, as well as an excellent toast when drinking. In fact that night we clinked our glasses several times to cries of ‘Beyond Pressure’.