In 2012, Chuu found inspiration in the ‘pa-ra-pike’, an illustrated book dating from the last era of Myanmar kings, which motivated her to create her first series that highlighted the life of women in society and the link between recent and historic social patterns.

After being exhibited at a number of galleries in the early 2010s, the series has been paused for public display for a few years.

However, behind the scenes, Chuu has been developing this original idea that combines a taste of the painting style from Myanmar art history with contemporary approaches.

After developing this series for about 10 years, Chuu has finally decided to release a new series of paintings that are a witch’s potion of historic Myanmar painting styles, color palettes from pagoda murals, Bagan era accessories, renaissance era women’s postures and Victorian era hairstyles. As with her other series of paintings, Chuu’s style and provocative approach is the main ingredient in this concoction.

These paintings will be printed and published in the Independent Journal of Burmese Scholarship’s special issue on Feminism & Marginality in Myanmar.

This series will illustrate each research paper relating to feminism in Myanmar.