Po Po

Last updated
Po Po
Born
Hla Oo

1957 (age 67–68)
Pathein, Irrawaddy Division, Myanmar
NationalityBurmese
Known for Painting
MovementPerformance Art

Po Po (born 1957) is a Burmese installation and performance artist. His work has been exhibited in Japan, South Korea and Berlin. [1]

Contents

Life

Po Po was born in 1957 in Pathein, Myanmar. His formal name is Hla Oo. [2] He is self-taught. Since 1987 Po Po has held many solo exhibitions, and his work has been shown at the Yokohama Triennale  [ ja ] in Yokohama, Japan, the Gwangju Biennale in Gwangju, South Korea, Fukuoka Triennale in Fukuoka, Japan and in the House of World Cultures, Berlin. [1] A May 2004 report described Po Po as one of the younger Myanmar artists who were creating impressive works in isolation and in conditions of penury. [3] However, Po Po is one of the few "contemporary" Myanmar artists who have been able to travel for participating in the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum's event in 1999, for instance. [4] He was also able to take part in Saigon Open City in Vietnam. [2] In June 2010 he visited Singapore to give a talk at the Osage Art Foundation. [5]

Work

Po Po, and another self-taught artist Aung Myint, are pioneers in the performance art field in Myanmar, with Po Po staging a 30-minute seminal performance in 1997. [6] Po Po is widely regarded as Myanmar's first practitioner of this art form. [7] Many of his works are playful, impulsive, ironic and sociable. Other works are provocative and shocking. [1] His installation work "rice terrace" at the Osage Gallery in Singapore in May/June 2010 involved 1000 Styrofoam boxes, each with about 100 grains of growing rice, with the boxes arranged on mud terraces in the gallery. [8] He describes his computer-installation Scream of the Dead, which features an open mass grave, as a metaphor for life in Myanmar and the world today. [1] His work is thoughtful and full of depth. In his photography he employs elements of cubism, which he considers to be the "highest state of intellectual approach" to painting. [9] A critic has said: "At best, his works reflect the lightness of being, joyfully, bearably so". [2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Po Po". Culturebase. February 14, 2008. Retrieved 2010-11-16.[ permanent dead link ]
  2. 1 2 3 "His works are few and far between but amazingly full of depth". The Myanmar Times. Retrieved 2010-11-16.[ permanent dead link ]
  3. ↑ YIN KER (May 2004). "Creation in Isolation: The Life and Career of Bagyi Aung Soe". The Irrawaddy. Archived from the original on 2010-11-06. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
  4. ↑ Chu Yuan (March–April 2006). "Networking and Initiatives for Culture and the Arts". NY Arts Magazine. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
  5. ↑ "Artist Talk by Po Po". ArtCalendr. 5 Jun 2010. Archived from the original on 2011-03-22. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
  6. ↑ Phoebe Wong. "Nothing if not liberated". Asia Art Archive. Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
  7. ↑ Iola Lenzi. "Citizen of the world: recent works by Aung Myint" (PDF). Yavuz Fine Art Gallery. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
  8. ↑ "Po Po's Terrace: Circumventing the Art World". BoonsCafe. June 14, 2010. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
  9. ↑ "27 contemporary Southeast Asian artists featured in ASEAN-Korea photo exhibition". Art Radar Asia. July 28, 2010. Archived from the original on 2011-04-12. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
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