The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT10) Catalogue

Artists The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 26 Graduated Uneducated (detail) 2021 Photographs / Four works: 47.2 x 84cm; three works: 50 x 75cm / Courtesy: The artists Construction and Deconstruction (still) 2021 Single-channel video: 16:9, colour, sound, 7:48 minutes / Courtesy: The artists Performance has played an essential role in the development of contemporary art in Myanmar. The art form has been embraced as a form of expression, with the benefit that it does not require costly materials and resources and can be staged in public without leaving a trace. This is significant in a country that has survived under a military junta for more than a generation and where, through heavy-handed censorship, a number of the nation’s pioneering artists have served time as political prisoners, and artists have very recently been jailed during anti-coup protests. 3AM is the banner under which artists Ma Ei, Ko Latt and Yadanar Win continue and expand on this important field of practice in Myanmar. The three artists decided to begin collaborating while participating in a group exhibition in Stockholm in 2016. They are the first performance art collective in Myanmar and each member maintains their own individual performance and multimedia practices. The members of 3AM have all been students of and contributors to Yangon’s influential New Zero Art Space, a prolific centre for performance and experimental practice in Asia. 1 Together, they represent the importance and vitality of performance, and continue its legacy as a formative means to comment on the social and political situations of Myanmar. Through improvisation, live public performances, studio productions and on-location photographic series, 3AM highlights ongoing political instability within Myanmar as well as issues of gender, sexuality, inequality and other social situations facing the country. Gold 2016 was one of the collective’s first performances and video works. This three-way performance saw the artists slathering gold paint on one another and enacting a series of embraces, gestures and interactions to signal the pervading presence of gold in Burmese culture and its superficial nature in ascribing value. The work also deliberately foregrounds female and queer bodies in relation to gender roles in Myanmar. Conceived before the military seized control of the fragile democracy in February 2021, and executed during the unrest that has ensued, 3AM’s most recent works continue the group’s focus on critical issues facing the nation. The photographic series Graduated Uneducated 2021 satirises Myanmar’s tertiary education system which comprises more than 150 universities that produce tens of thousands of graduates each year. 2 The work draws attention to the extravagant costumes and celebrations commonly undertaken by graduates, and the reality of the very low standard of these educational institutions whose dubious degrees are commonly insufficient for securing jobs and stable futures for Myanmar’s youth. 3 Construction and Deconstruction 2021 begins with a response to the catastrophic landslide that killed more than 160 jade miners in Kachin State in 2020. In a studio production, the artists each slowly take to a mound of raw material which is rhythmically kneaded and oozes colour as it is slowly deconstructed. The mines in Kachin State employ a largely domestic migrant workforce who are poorly paid and unsupervised, in an industry known for corruption, lawlessness and drug addiction. The landslide exposed immense land exploitation and suspicious private business deals between military groups and Chinese companies. The work also specifically refers to the urges, influences and emotions that have surfaced during the 2021 military coup. 4 The mounds of flour begin to take the colours of the Myanmar flag, which are then pounded and shaped as the artists become entangled in material and the individual colours begin to dissolve. The performance acts as a reference to both the destruction of land and the manipulation of society. In 3AM’s works, the artists rely only on their bodies and each other to convey the urgency and threats in the subjects they target. As their actions become physically entwined and collectively improvised, the members become a reflection of Myanmar’s society coming to terms with the reality and complexity of current conditions. Tarun Nagesh Endnotes 1 New Zero Art Space is a non-profit visual arts organisation established in Yangon, Myanmar, in 2008 by artist Aye Ko. 2 3AM artist statement, November 2020. 3 Artist statement. 4 3AM, email to the author, June 2021. 3AM Established 2016, Myanmar Ma Ei, born 1978, Dawai, Myanmar Ko Latt, born 1988, Paung, Myanmar Yadanar Win, born 1987, Yangon, Myanmar Live and work in Yangon