Po Po

For other uses, see Popo (disambiguation).
Po Po
Born
Hla Oo

1957 (age 66–67)
Pathein, Irrawaddy Division, Myanmar
NationalityBurmese
Known forPainting
MovementPerformance Art

Po Po (born 1957) is a Burmese installation and performance artist. His work has been exhibited in Japan, South Korea and Berlin.[1]

Life

Po Po was born in 1957 in Pathein, Myanmar. His formal name is Hla Oo.[2] He is self-taught. Since 1987 Po Po has held many solo exhibitions, and his work has been shown at the Yokohama Triennale [ja] in Yokohama, Japan, the Gwangju Biennale in Gwangju, South Korea, Fukuoka Triennale in Fukuoka, Japan and in the House of World Cultures, Berlin.[1] A May 2004 report described Po Po as one of the younger Myanmar artists who were creating impressive works in isolation and in conditions of penury.[3] However, Po Po is one of the few "contemporary" Myanmar artists who have been able to travel for participating in the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum's event in 1999, for instance.[4] He was also able to take part in Saigon Open City in Vietnam.[2] In June 2010 he visited Singapore to give a talk at the Osage Art Foundation.[5]

Work

Po Po, and another self-taught artist Aung Myint, are pioneers in the performance art field in Myanmar, with Po Po staging a 30-minute seminal performance in 1997.[6] Po Po is widely regarded as Myanmar's first practitioner of this art form.[7] Many of his works are playful, impulsive, ironic and sociable. Other works are provocative and shocking.[1] His installation work "rice terrace" at the Osage Gallery in Singapore in May/June 2010 involved 1000 Styrofoam boxes, each with about 100 grains of growing rice, with the boxes arranged on mud terraces in the gallery.[8] He describes his computer-installation Scream of the Dead, which features an open mass grave, as a metaphor for life in Myanmar and the world today.[1] His work is thoughtful and full of depth. In his photography he employs elements of cubism, which he considers to be the "highest state of intellectual approach" to painting.[9] A critic has said: "At best, his works reflect the lightness of being, joyfully, bearably so".[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Po Po". Culturebase. February 14, 2008. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
  2. ^ a b c "His works are few and far between but amazingly full of depth". The Myanmar Times. Retrieved 2010-11-16.[permanent dead link‍]
  3. ^ YIN KER (May 2004). "Creation in Isolation: The Life and Career of Bagyi Aung Soe". The Irrawaddy. Archived from the original on 2010-11-06. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
  4. ^ Chu Yuan (March–April 2006). "Networking and Initiatives for Culture and the Arts". NY Arts Magazine. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
  5. ^ "Artist Talk by Po Po". ArtCalendr. 5 Jun 2010. Archived from the original on 2011-03-22. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
  6. ^ Phoebe Wong. "Nothing if not liberated". Asia Art Archive. Archived from the original on 2011-10-02. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
  7. ^ Iola Lenzi. "Citizen of the world: recent works by Aung Myint" (PDF). Yavuz Fine Art Gallery. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-18. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
  8. ^ "Po Po's Terrace: Circumventing the Art World". BoonsCafe. June 14, 2010. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
  9. ^ "27 contemporary Southeast Asian artists featured in ASEAN-Korea photo exhibition". Art Radar Asia. July 28, 2010. Retrieved 2010-11-16.