The Maw Naing

The Maw Naing, born in Myin Gyan, Myanmar, in 1971 studied IT and is a poet, performance artist, painter and filmmaker. His first book of verse, published in 1988, is a pointed commentary in surrealistic images on the political upheavals in Myanmar. The Maw Naing’s poems do not merely interrogate the present-day social situation, but also the role of the subject in it, with the author himself becoming a field of experimentation for changes in meaning. His poems are frequently an integral part of his installations, performances and films, which have brouge him many prizes and awards.

We Live in Gray (2020)

Installation with Fiber Glass, TV video

15 x 8 x 2 feet

People live in cities with very polluted air and they do not seem to care to make themselves aware of the dangerous situation they are in. In Yangon, some state that because they have lived here their whole lives, they do not need to worry. But Yangon has changed a lot in the past 10 years. On 22 February 2020, the AQI (Air Quality Index) was 242, the highest it has ever been, worse than cities three or four times the size of Yangon, like Beijing. Such levels of pollution are considered as “very unhealthy” for the population. In 2017, more than 45,000 died because of air pollution. In this installation, one looping video shows the text ‘We Live’ in different languages. The other video shows different colors amidst the gray smoke. In this installation, I want to bring more awareness to the air we breath and the environment we live in. I want us to ask ourselves why we are content to live this way, with polluted skies.

But that’s not all, governments neglect to take care of their environment and in turn, we, people, are suffering from this gray situation. This work not only tells about air pollution, it also tells about the gray situation and gray zone we live in.