• Burmese
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
27 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home Culture Arts

From Plastic, Ex-Political Prisoner Makes Art

Kyaw Phyo Tha by Kyaw Phyo Tha
September 10, 2014
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0 0
A A
From Plastic

Burmese artist San Zaw Htway takes a break in his studio in Rangoon. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)|Blue moon on the highway: “Blue Moon on the Highway” is one of three collages by San Zaw Htay that have been chosen for the exhibition in London. (Photo: Artraker website)|A collage by Burmese artist San Zaw Htway. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)|A collage by Burmese artist San Zaw Htway. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)|A collage by Burmese artist San Zaw Htway. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)|A collage by Burmese artist San Zaw Htway. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)|A collage by Burmese artist San Zaw Htway. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)|A collage by Burmese artist San Zaw Htway. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)|A collage by Burmese artist San Zaw Htway. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)|A collage by Burmese artist San Zaw Htway. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)|A collage by Burmese artist San Zaw Htway. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)|A collage by Burmese artist San Zaw Htway. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)|A collage by Burmese artist San Zaw Htway. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)|Burmese artist San Zaw Htway takes a break in his studio in Rangoon. (Photo: JPaing / The Irrawaddy)

6.3k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

RANGOON — Give him plastic bags of any color, and this former political prisoner will turn them into a work of art.

Instead of acrylic paint and brushes, San Zaw Htway opts to work with not only plastic bags, but also cardboard, instant coffee packets and other recycled goods. He taught himself to make painting-like collages with these materials while he was serving time under the former military regime.

“They’re all I need,” boasted the 40-year-old, pointing to scissors and adhesive containers littered across the floor of his studio in Rangoon. In one corner of the second-floor studio sits of a pile of smoothed plastic wrappings that otherwise would have been destined for a garbage can.

RelatedPosts

U San Hla, who lost his leg in a mine blast near Namtwe Village. / Htet Wai / The Irrawaddy

Treading Lightly in Shan State: The Civilian Casualties of Myanmar’s Landmines

December 16, 2019
12.9k
Zau Bauk, who lost his wife and two of his children in recent clashes. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

Shelling Fractures Families in Myanmar’s Conflict-Torn Shan State

December 10, 2019
13.9k
Will Rangoon’s Secretariat be Returned to the Public?

Will Rangoon’s Secretariat be Returned to the Public?

August 10, 2016
19k

Since his release from prison in 2012, San Zaw Htway has held five solo shows in Burma, in addition to teaching his collage techniques to orphans and children living with HIV.

Now his work is gaining international attention. He has been shortlisted for the 2014 Artraker Award, which recognizes artists who are making a difference in highly challenging environments. The works of 12 candidates from 10 countries, including Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, will be exhibited from Sept. 18-25 at London’s a/political gallery.

“Being shortlisted means a lot to me because recycled collage art is still not well embraced in Burma,” said San Zaw Htway at his home, while preparing for his trip to the capital of England.

“Despite my access to paint and brushes now, I still stick to recycled collage art because it’s environmentally sustainable and I want the art trend to develop in Burma,” he added.

Painting was a childhood hobby for San Zaw Htway. When he was sentenced to 36 years in prison for his anti-government political activities in 1999, he was only a college freshman majoring in history. He spent 13 years in prison, during which time he was put in solitary confinement and he went on hunger strikes.

Burmese prisons are notorious for their squalid conditions and restrictions on prisoners’ rights, with even reading and writing prohibited. San Zaw Htaw said he saw art as a way to defy prison authorities. “I intentionally did it to show them that they can’t control everything in our lives,” he said. “But the problem was how to make it happen, since painting materials were not allowed.”

The student activist decided to make collages with materials within his reach. When his family sent him foods wrapped in plastic bags, he turned the bags into a canvas on which he plastered colorful cuttings from instant coffee packets and shampoo sachets. He scavenged prison garbage cans for plastic sheets in colors that caught his eye. He washed them, smoothed them out and applied them onto the makeshift canvas with the help of a smuggled scissor and glue.

Working late at night under the faint glow of a light bulb that dangled on the ceiling of the corridor outside his cell, he was careful to hide his work from prison authorities, taking days to finish a single collage. He produced portraits of Burmese democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi and collages of peacocks, the emblem of Burmese student and democracy movements. Some of his works reflected his longing for freedom, including “Blue Moon on the Highway,” one the three collages that have been chosen for the exhibition in London.

“I was lying awake one night in 2009 and I heard the occasional swishes of buses on the highway outside the prison. I felt a surge of longing to be on one of those buses, so I poured out my feeling onto the collage,” he said.

Htein Lin, a prominent Burmese contemporary artist and another former political prisoner, said San Zaw Htway’s nomination for the Artraker Award and his participation in the exhibition would be a source of pride for Burmese artists and their country.

“I like his recycled artwork, not only for its promotion of environmental sustainability, but also for its reflection of an important message behind all forms of prison artwork: You can lock up our bodies, but not our emotions and our creativity,” he said.

Apart from being a collage artist, San Zaw Htway is a counselor for former political prisoners and their families. Earlier this year he joined a training program—organized by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) with support from Johns Hopkins University—and now he offers counseling sessions five days per week.

“As a former political prisoner myself, I know very well to what extent we and our families have been mentally affected by what we faced for years. Counseling is one of the best ways to cure their traumas,” he said.

When asked how he felt to be participating in the exhibition in London, he said he was happy.

“My prison experience has taught me that no matter how dire the situation is, there is a way to achieve what you want to do,” he said. “That is my message to anyone who sees my art.”

Your Thoughts …
Tags: Features
Kyaw Phyo Tha

Kyaw Phyo Tha

The Irrawaddy

Similar Picks:

From Aung San’s Driver to Centenarian
Stories That Shaped Us

From Aung San’s Driver to Centenarian, a Long and Winding Road

by Kyaw Zwa Moe
April 29, 2015
12.7k

As the man who drove Gen. Aung San to Panglong, 100-year-old U Khan is proud of the small part he...

Read moreDetails
The Safe Sex Talk
Specials

The Safe Sex Talk, Burmese Style

by Samantha Michaels
January 20, 2014
27.7k

In a Buddhist-majority country where talking about intimacy is taboo, efforts are under way to develop a better system for...

Read moreDetails
The Life of Burmese Male Sex Workers in Chiang Mai
Features

The Life of Burmese Male Sex Workers in Chiang Mai

by Kyaw Kha
November 18, 2014
46.7k

Dozens of young men from poor villages in Shan State work as sex workers in gay show bars in northern...

Read moreDetails
Sex Sells in Burma’s Sin City
Features

Sex Sells in Burma’s Sin City

by Lawi Weng
September 2, 2014
25.9k

Nowhere in culturally conservative Burma is it easier to find sex than in Mong La, a Sino-Burmese border town with...

Read moreDetails
The Kola of Cambodia
Features

The Kola of Cambodia

by The Irrawaddy
January 9, 2015
8.2k

A Buddhist pagoda and an elderly woman are among the last traces of a group of mysterious Myanmar migrants.

Read moreDetails
Forgotten
Factiva

Forgotten, but Not Gone

by Yan Pai
April 18, 2014
17.2k

Half a millennium after the Portuguese first set foot in Myanmar, their legacy lives on in a remote corner of...

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
Senior UN Official Wraps Up Arakan Trip

Senior UN Official Wraps Up Arakan Trip

Al-Qaeda’s Shadowy New ‘Emir’ in South Asia Handed Tough Job

Al-Qaeda’s Shadowy New ‘Emir’ in South Asia Handed Tough Job

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

7 days ago
1.3k
What the ‘Snake Charmer’ Analogy Gets Wrong About Myanmar

What the ‘Snake Charmer’ Analogy Gets Wrong About Myanmar

20 hours ago
838

Most Read

  • Indian Army Accused of Deadly Strike on Separatists in Myanmar

    Indian Army Accused of Deadly Strike on Separatists in Myanmar

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Launches Space Agency With Russian Help

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta Moves into Nawnghkio Outskirts

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • What the ‘Snake Charmer’ Analogy Gets Wrong About Myanmar

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar and Russian Regimes Push Indian Trade Corridor to Bypass Western Sanctions

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.