A talented artist will bring some mythical creatures of Burmese mythology to life in a new exhibition exploring identity this week.
Ceramics artist Soe Yu Nwe will launch her exhibition “Hybridized Beings” at Myanm/art in downtown Yangon on 28 February.
Visitors can enjoy the 15 ceramic works in the free gallery until 15 March.
The detailed and delicate sculptures embrace Soe Yu Nwe’s passion for animistic beliefs, folklores and mythology—particularly female figures of Buddhist mythology.
The artist, whose globally celebrated work saw her named on the Forbes 30 under 30: Art and Style List in 2019, also explores identity through the supernatural in the display.
Among her muses is Naga Mae Daw, the goddess of serpent dragons, who caught her attention at Botataung Pagoda near Yangon River.
By moulding the head of the Burmese dragon queen in several forms, she explores notions of fertility, spirituality, and the loneliness of being a woman in conservative Myanmar.
The pagoda also held another source of inspiration for Soe Yu Nwe: a shrine to devout Buddhist Mya Nan Nwe, who was said to have reincarnated into a dragon nat, or spirit, after her death in the 1950s.
“As I reconfigured these symbols and icons, I reflect upon my otherness through conceiving the self as a fluid, fragile and fragmented entity,” said Soe Yu Nwe.
The artist interprets her Chinese nickname, Tree Flower (樹 花), and shows her mother’s foot bound to hers in one sculpture. In another, her hands transform into garlands in a way reminiscent of the mythical Greek goddess Daphne who morphed into a laurel tree.
Soe Yu Nwe is an artist based in Yangon and the US. After earning her master’s in fine art from the Rhode Island School of Design, she participated in multiple international exhibitions in the US, China, Philippines, Taiwan, and Australia's largest contemporary art museum, the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art.
She recently joined the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in Brisbane, Australia. “Hybridized Beings” is her third solo show at Myanm/art.
