REBİRTH IN EXILE

Eight emerging artists from Myanmar explore themes of home, displacement and self-reinvention at SAC Gallery

- STORY: THANA BOONLERT

On a poster, Phnom Penh glows dimly from afar. Flickering on the other side of the Mekong River, rows of buildings dissolve, blending with water and sky in the blue hour of twilight. This photo and a whisper are an invitation to stargaze the city glimmering in the distance.

The military coup in Myanmar on Feb 1, 2021, triggered an exodus of millions, with many fleeing to Thailand. "If Only It Is Seen, Thus, From Afar" is the first queer exhibition of emerging artists from the neighbouring country. Curated by Sid Kaung Sett Lin and Bodhisattava LGBTQ+ Gallery, it brings together eight lost stars — Zicky Le, Zin Min Thike, Swannie, Roxy Owan, Na Torah, Min Chit Paing, Htet Aung Lwyn and Kyaw Min Htet.

Partly inspired by Yukio Mishima's Sun And Steel, a memoir of transformation of his own flesh, the exhibition delves into the fundamental question of queer homemaking. Straddling between their homeland and a foreign city, they are navigating emotional turmoil of reinventing themselves in a terrain that is familiar, yet strange. Resilience and hope are inseparable from pain and alienation.

In his prequel, Sid traced his curatorial inspiration, though fragmented, to his visit to Zin’s home in a suburb of Bangkok. Slowly, the city is morphing from an adrenaline-rush getaway into a personal sanctum. He explained how they had taken root, dealing with visas, house contracts and job applications. In free time, they played a video game together, which is when this project came about.

"We want to talk about home, migration, displacement and how we try to survive here. After survival, we have a little time to reflect on ourselves. What do we want to do with life?," he said in an opening ceremony on June 7.