Cartoonist Finds New Pleasure in Colorful Crumpled Paper

By Wei Yan Aung 25 January 2018

YANGON — Colorful creased pieces of paper manipulated by artist Min Zaw with scissors and spray paint are proving popular with visitors to his fifth solo show.

Min Zaw is the creator of the successful “Bo Bo” comic series of the 1990s and 2000s, which featured the stories of a boy and his extraterrestrial friend.

Despite his success with comics, the cartoonist had his paintings banned by the censorship board of the former military regime because of their political connotations.

One day he began playing with the texture of paper and fell in love with it. “I feel satisfied making textured paper and I have made a lot of it. I crumple plain paper and create creased textures with spray paint, and I cut them into the shapes I want,” the artist explained.

“Mainly it is about having fun. It is fun to put colorful pieces of paper in place,” said Min Zaw, who has turned his memories of landscapes into colorful paper artworks.

Visitors to Min Zaw’s latest exhibition can’t help but praise the lovely creations and their beautiful colors. Most of the pieces depict pagodas, monasteries and rural customs in red, green and blue.

“I didn’t expect some colors to match in such a beautiful way. It is quite fun,” he said.

His paper pieces will be on display until Saturday at Yangon’s Studio Square on the upper block of Maha Bandoola Street. A total of 24 pieces are on display, priced between $300 and $1,200.

“Most of the visitors said they feel happy and pleased looking at my creations. I feel the same way, and I’m happy that visitors feel the same. They get my message,” Min Zaw said.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.