Artwork: Richie Nath, Maya and the Burning Village 2017
inkjet print on matte poster paper, 93 x 56.5 cm
Richie Nath was born in 1995 in Yangon. While his childhood was in Yangon, Nath spent most his young adult life in England, where he graduated with a degree in Fashion Illustration from the London College of Fashion. Nath’s works have a strong emphasis on the human figure (often female) and how to reinterpret its historical gaze. He uses oil, gouache and ink on paper and canvas. As a queer artist, his works predominately explore themes of female energy & empowerment, eroticism, sexual identity and his own experience growing up in a conservative culture. His paintings often depict his ancestral home, traditional Burmese figures and mythologies in a convoluted scene juxtaposed by contemporary contexts referencing fashion, political positions and societal events. In 2021, Nath relocated to Paris, France as part of the Artist in Exile Residency Program.
Think About/Discuss:
In Nath’s work Maya and the Burning Village (2017), there is evidence of appropriation of both traditional Burmese styles and techniques as well as influential Western artworks. Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus (1485) is referenced in the female figure at the centre of the work, only in this instance, her free-flowing hair masks her face. Why did the artist paint her this way and what meaning or context is he intending to communicate to his audience?
Many artists in Fighting Fear II: It Goes Without Saying reference traditional Burmese practices. Compare Nath’s artwork with those of Muang Day and 882021 to recognise elements of traditional Burmese art in contemporary form.
Section I practice:
Use the following artworks as ‘unseen images’ to practice building knowledge and confidence in Section 1 responses. Discuss the artworks and how they form meaning and context using composition, appropriation, subject matter, symbolism and titling. Works can also be examined through the lens of artists using contemporary practices that reference traditional styles, techniques or subject matter.
Questions:
How do two Burmese artists represent their culture and history? (5 marks)
How does (artist) incorporate both the traditional and the contemporary in their artmaking practice? (5 marks)
Investigate the ways in which two artists have conveyed a personal view of everyday life? (8 marks)
Analyse how these artists represent and interpret their worlds in these images? (8 marks)
Investigate the ways in which these artworks are a response to time and place (12 marks)
Artworks in exhibition:
Richie Nath, Maya and the Burning Village (2017)
882021, Generational Curse (2022)
Additional artworks:
Maung Day, Lost Children (Thrown in the River) (2022)
Banksy, Love Is In The Air, Flower Thrower – West Bank (2005)
Blak Douglas, Moby Dickens – Australia (2022)
