Canvas:
This work is created using traditional Burmese hand-woven fabric, whose surface carries layered histories of culture, gender, and belief. The textile references garments such as the longyi and htamain—materials deeply embedded in everyday life and shaped by long-standing social codes surrounding femininity, purity, and power. Used as both material and meaning, the fabric becomes a site where personal experience and cultural inheritance intersect.
Technique:
The work is constructed by painting on canvas and physically weaving it together with Myanmar fabric. Acrylic paint is applied to both surfaces, allowing the painted canvas and textile to interlock structurally and visually. The figure and background exist in dialogue, with painted forms emerging from the woven material rather than dominating it. Color repetition and rhythm are used to create balance between softness and restraint.
Process:
The work develops through a process of layering, weaving, and symbolic decision-making. By combining painted canvas with fabric as structure, the process mirrors how tradition and belief are absorbed into daily life. The act of weaving becomes both a formal and conceptual gesture—binding control and resistance together while allowing moments of quiet defiance and self-determination to surface.
Artwork Description:
Lingering Lotus Dreams reflects on endurance, desire, and inner strength through the symbolism of the lotus flower. Like the lotus that rises from murky waters to bloom with clarity, the work considers resilience shaped through adversity. The figure’s calm presence suggests dreams that persist—unbroken, even when constrained.
The hand-woven patterned fabric forms a structured backdrop, evoking cultural order and inherited expectation. Within this framework stands a woman whose body carries both vulnerability and resolve. The red garment becomes a visual anchor, referencing tradition and restriction while also asserting personal presence.
Rooted in Myanmar’s cultural context, the work engages with beliefs surrounding women’s clothing and the control placed upon female bodies. These beliefs were later transformed into acts of feminist resistance during the 2021 military coup, when garments became tools of protest in what came to be known as the Sarong Revolution. While not depicting protest directly, the work resonates with this history, honoring fabric as both symbol and instrument of resistance.
Through restraint and symbolism, Lingering Lotus Dreams offers a meditation on how women continue to carry hope, memory, and aspiration—allowing dreams to linger, even within systems that seek to confine them.
