CHAW EI THEIN and HTEIN LIN - Thavibu Gallery

Far Away in NYC @ Chamber
Street Subway Station, 2010
Acrylic on canvas
80 x 100 cm
In @ 86-02, 57 th Road, Elmhurst, Queens Chaw refers to
the challenges she faced when her residency ended
and the bright possibilities of New York started to
dissipate. With an amazing interweaving of looking
and meaning, Chaw draws attention to her frenzy of
her social context through a restless energy that is
constantly at play. With an unlikely level of poise, the
interplay of loud color, organization and structure
relates to the social codes to which her life had been
reduced. These are themes that constantly surface in
these paintings as her expressions and forms are in
reality the transposition of cultural values.
Far Away in NYC @ Prince
Street Subway Station, 2010
Acrylic on canvas
80 x 100 cm
Chaw Ei Thein’s practice interrogates the meeting of
culture and nature in the broadest sense. Here in Far
Away in NYC her work is a meditation on the body and
its negotiation of the space and things around it. @7520,
41 st Avenue, Elmhurst reflects that consciousness as
she aesthetically seeks to stimulate her experiences
t h a t i n v i t e t h e v i e w e r t o c r o s s t h e l i n e b e t w e e n
commonplace and emotion. Within the restricted
confines of yet another transient habitat, Chaw’s
work investigates the potential to extend the body’s
sense by subverting them. The development of her
o e u v re h a s gr av i t a te d tow a rd s i m m e r s i n g t h e v i e we r
emotionally in the work. With this awareness in mind,
the muted expressionism in @231, West 25 th Street,
Chelsea, Manhattan (1) is a response that conveys her
vulnerability, fears and insecurity when she learnt
that she could not return to Burma. Within the same
18 STORIES OUT OF BURMA