The Sixth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

136 Tun Win Aung and Wah Nu Between the two The Asia Pacific Triennial continues to connect artists and communities, this year including artists from the Union of Myanmar (sometimes referred to by its former colonial name, Burma) 1 for the first time in the series’ 16-year history. Featured in The Mekong project of APT6 is the photography series ‘Blurring the Boundaries’ 2007–09, a collaborative work by artists and married couple Tun Win Aung and Wah Nu, based in Yangon (Rangoon). Myanmar is perhaps the most restrictive among the states of the Greater Mekong Subregion in terms of control over internal cultural and political activity. Information for and about contemporary arts is severely limited, while all exhibitions, publications and performances must receive official permission. People of the ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) member states can generally travel without the need for visas, however, Myanmar is the exception in that its citizens must obtain visas for nearly every venture outside the country. In the past, this has made it difficult for many of its artists to connect with the larger South-East Asian and international arts communities. In spite of this, Myanmar has developed a bold new generation of artists that has increasingly attracted attention from international galleries and curators. The relationship between fiction and reality has always been complex. Theorist Jean Baudrillard, known for his work on simulation and the complications that arise from it, posited that a simulacrum is a third- generation copy where reality is ultimately replaced — the simulacrum is the reality. 2 The photographs in ‘Blurring the Boundaries’ trace this phenomenon. Tun Win Aung and Wah Nu have referred to original works in scaled simulations. These simulations are then photographed, in effect becoming the third-generation simulacra and, for this exhibition, they replace the original work, obliterate the reference, and become the art work itself. In certain photographs, the illusion is so convincing that the viewer is hard-pressed to identify the model at all. When asked why they created the models, the artists responded: Tun Win Aung: This is a very simple reason. I want to see my idea as an actual work. But most of my ideas are difficult to see realised. Wah Nu: Sometimes I have an idea but I can’t do the final installation. But I want to see it by myself. I want to show it to another person. And I want to know how my work is going to affect them when they finish seeing it. This is not only something special, but also to see and tell. 3 Tun Win Aung and Wah Nu, trained in sculpture and music respectively, and graduated from the University of Culture in Yangon in 1998, where they met. Since then, both artists have become freer in terms of the media and the forms they explore. While Wah Nu studied music, she had inclinations for the visual arts: When I started to do my video work, at that time, I never saw video art before . . . That kind of art is very new for [our] country till that time. But I know about this technique, because I grew up in [a] film industry family. I know where I can find the materials such as cameras. This is [a] good reason why I can present my idea with this new media. 4 While artists from Myanmar continue to struggle to find their place at home and as part of a larger arts community, their honest and inspiring ‘do-it-yourself-by-any-means-necessary’ work ethic demonstrates that the imagination cannot be bound. Rich Streitmatter-Tran Endnotes 1 The socialist republic of Burma officially adopted the name Myanmar (formally the Union of Myanmar) in 1989. 2 Jean Baudrillard, The Simulcra and the Simulation , University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI, 1995. 3 Tun Win Aung and Wah Nu, email to the author, 30 September 2009. 4 Tun Win Aung and Wah Nu, email to the author.