While many of us worked our way through the entire Netflix library during the coronavirus lockdown, three friends used the canvas to explore the meaning of life and death.
The result was 12 acrylic paintings that are being displayed in the Tay Bon Mar or “The Three Main Realms” exhibition at Myanm/art in downtown Yangon until August 16.
The exhibition takes its name from the dhamma song Tay Bon Mar, which reflects on existence, cause and effect. The etymological origins of the word can be traced to the Sanskrit word trailokya; the word was slowly formed into ti bon mar and then to tay bon mar.
It represents the three spheres of existence, according to Buddhist belief—part of a wider notion of samsara, the continuing cycle of rebirth that Buddhists regards as suffering that humans must try to escape.
Of the three spheres, kama-loka (desire place) is a semi-material world where hell and our living realm coincide. Rupa-loka (form, shape, figure place) is a higher plane of forms that have a more meditative than physical existence, and arupaloka (formlessness place) is the highest of the three, an immaterial world where existence depends on the level of concentration attained. Think of it as the Buddhist version of Dante’s Divine Comedy.
“COVID-19 made me think of life and death all the time,” painter Ba G, 37, wrote in a description of his work for the exhibition. “Even though our country wasn’t affected by the most counts of death, wherever I read, and whomever I talked to, we always had to share the status of life and death due to the disease.”
His art of a cow calving are placed next to depictions of geckos painted by Lwin Oo Maung, 36, who said his time alone made him “connect spiritually” with the little lizards crawling around his house.
“I started to explore my environment with different scopes; slowly, I developed my way to appreciate the repetitiveness around me,” he said. “In Burmese tradition, a gecko’s squeak during conversations in a home can bring a considerable amount of luck, yet most people tend to be scared of common house geckos. I became friends with the geckos, and we began to share everything.”
Thadi Htar, 38, operated out of his friend’s house near the beach in Rakhine state’s Thandwe during the lockdown. He reflected on how people collect and view art.
“People collect artwork to share their luxuries, maximize their social circles, and explain the term ‘beautiful painting’. I am disgusted by them,” he said. “They tend to forget the sufferings in daily life, the drive that keeps people sane, and the drive that makes humans understand one another. I believe artwork is one suffering of an artist,” he said.
What? Art exhibition Tay Bon Mar.
Where? Myanm/art in Urban Asia Centre, Between 47th St and 48th Street, Maha Bandoola Road, Botahtaung township, Yangon.
When? Until August 16. The gallery opens everyday from 11am to 6pm.
