Min Ma Naing, Faces of Change: Businessperson and LGBTQ Activist, 30 2022

Artists’ work reflects shifts in society. With their fingers on the pulse of culture and media, artists are the image-makers of a revolution. How does artwork evolve when the revolution changes? When we first opened Fighting Fear: #whatshappeninginmyanmar just three months after the coup, the urgency in the artwork was clear. Protest posters, three-finger salutes symbolising solidarity against the military takeover, bilingual chants and calls to action, and powerful portraits depicting the fight against oppression were all rendered in the exhibition. There was a chance that more voices, media and international attention might turn the tide of the coup. Now we know there are more battles to be fought. Fighting Fear II: It Goes Without Saying recognises artists who continue to find new avenues of survival, struggle, and resistance through their work. 

The artists’ lives have changed fundamentally since the coup. Some have left Myanmar and others remain, but all fear for the safety of family and friends. Yet they continue to engage. The only artists in Myanmar who have given up their craft are those that have joined the armed resistance. All others continue to organise and join exhibitions, share on social media, and create in their home studios. From their perspective, it goes without saying that they must continue to speak out against the military coup.