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Htein Lin
Until Oct 13 2007
- Recommended
This event has finished
Asia House, 63 New Cavendish St, London, W1G 7LP
Rating:
'Waiting for Food'
By Helen Sumpter

Posted: Fri Aug 31 2007
With the ICA showing work by prisoners’ charity The Koestler Trust, there’s been much coverage recently of art made behind bars. But this show of paintings by Burmese artist Htein Lin, made between 1998 and 2004 when he was a political prisoner of the military regime, is a cut above the usual naive and craft-based offerings. An artist (and actor) before his incarceration, Htein Lin’s expressive figurative and abstract paintings – mostly on pieces of cotton uniform and bedding roll – are not only powerful images of physical and emotional distress but reveal the inventiveness of the creative and captive mind.

While paints could be smuggled into prison, brushes were less easy to come by, so the artist improvised with whatever came to hand; monoprints are made using the back of a laminated photo of Buddha, textures created by pressing on to a woven mat and patterns printed using toothpaste lids, medicine bottle tops, the wheels of cigarette lighters and, most interestingly, syringes (obtained from the prison hospital). When squirted or dribbled on to the thick cotton cloth, the paint has its own aesthetic effect – almost resembling thread – and one can’t help wondering how Jackson Pollock might have taken to the technique.

While it’s understandable that this exhibition is being used to raise awareness of Burma’s repressive regime (Htein Lin’s marriage to British ambassador Victoria Bowman has added a more fairytale, media-friendly twist to his tale), it shouldn’t just be seen as a worthy cause.

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2 comments

Posted by Sandra Greene on 30 Aug 2008 21:32
Today I had the pleasure of attending a fundraising event for the Burma Cyclone appeal organised by Dr Tina Kyi where Htein Lin was present and performed a live painting and verbal presentation which was auctioned. Burma is very close to my heart and "Thank Htein Lin" for the privelige

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Posted by Sandra Greene on 30 Aug 2008 21:32
Today I had the pleasure of attending a fundraising event for the Burma Cyclone appeal organised by Dr Tina Kyi where Htein Lin was present and performed a live painting and verbal presentation which was auctioned. Burma is very close to my heart and "Thank Htein Lin" for the privelige

Report this comment as inappropriate