Presentation12 August 2026, 01:25pm to 01:45pm
Dialogue 12 August 2026, 02:25pm to 03:45pm
In this presentation, Soe Yu Nwe will present her artistic journey in clay, an ancient material human civilization which associates with life. She will share the central themes and inspiration in her work. As a third generation Chinese immigrant whose war refugees parents grew up and lived along the border between China, Thailand and Myanmar, the experience of living within several linguistic and cultural environment has influenced her work and identity formation. Inspired by Animism within the ancient Chinese practices in the instance of her spiritual naming and also animistic practices in Burmese Buddhist culture, she creates work where identities and meanings shifts within the body while the spirit world and the natural realm collides. Fascinated by urban stories around the mythical and real female figures within Myanmar Buddhist-Animist culture, she re-imagined these beings to explore the boundaries between the spiritual and physical worlds. As her chosen material is clay, she will also share her fascination of the material with the audience by letting them feel the spontaneity of clay in their hands during the talk. This is to invoke the sensory experience of interacting with the material to potentially glimpse into the clay�s ability to create flow state.
Soe Yu Nwe is an artist from Myanmar. After earning an MFA degree in Ceramics at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design in 2015, Soe has been participating in numerous residencies in the United States and across Asia. Her experience of living cross-culturally has inspired her to reflect upon her own identity through making, conceiving it as a fluid, fragile and fragmented entity.
Through transfiguration of her emotional landscape by poetically depicting nature and body in parts, she ponders the complexities of individual identity in this rapidly changing globalised society.