About the Cover

Cover: Zwe Mon (b.1990), Untitled, 2013. Acrylic on canvas, dimensions 36 in. × 48 in. Burma Art Collection at Northern Illinois University (BC.2019.03.05). Gift from Ian Holliday, Thukhuma Art Collection.

Photo: Center for Burma Studies, Northern Illinois University

Zwe Mon has developed a style that merges the specificity of an implied self-portrait or historical portrait with the universality of an image that can symbolize all Myanmar women. In this work conceived and created by a female artist, one senses a woman’s contemplation of the past, present, and future unclouded by an imagined male perspective. Here, aspects of Burmese culture, Buddhist belief, prayers for protection, a call for strength and courage in modern times, and attitude of quiet determination to improve the situation of women in the future mesh and blend.

This slim figure of a woman sports a Burmese eingyi blouse, cheeks daubed with thanaka sandalwood paste, and tidily arranged hair with green flowers matching her modern green nail polish that characterize a traditional feminine beauty. Her large eyes seem modeled on the pa ya pite, the classical rendering of eyes in accordance with over a millennium of classical wall paintings in Buddhist temples or the big eyes described in the literature that represent honesty. Beside her rises a large Buddhist symbol an unalome—an elongated spiral design sometimes engraved on the foreheads of Buddha images or used in tattoos to signify the difficult convoluted journey toward enlightenment or “infinity.” Four letters from the Burmese alphabet, sa, da, ba, and wa, written in the center of the unalome, also appear as black letters painted at the four corners of the canvas as though to serve as protection. It represents a familiar yok sama image which could have been suggested to the artist by an astrologer for apotropaic purposes.

For many, the slender build, high forehead, and softly styled hair tied back with flowers also recall the iconic image of Aung San Suu Kyi. It would not be a stretch to interpret the figure as a representation of this contemporary symbol of strength and courage. During her interview for NIU, Zwe Mon mentioned the significance of the use of colors, such as “the red background to represent courageous Burmese women.” This symbolism gives rise to new ways to interpret the red coloring of the full lips.

There is no mistaking, however, that the eyes must also be the large eyes of the artist as the mole under her right eye is surely Zwe Mon’s. A mole or beauty mark on the face in traditional Burmese thinking is associated with a life of bad luck, but to Zwe Mon, who was interviewed in Yangon in 2016, it is something she said she loves. Unaffected by the superstition, she said the mole serves to remind her that “she must not fail.” Born in Yangon, educated at the State School of Fine Arts and encouraged by her father, a professional comic artist and illustrator, Zwe Mon nonetheless knows what it is like to suffer discrimination. She fights for the right of women to education, for their freedom from sexual exploitation, and against traditional or modern forms of discrimination.

Dr. Helen Nagata, Art Historian, and Dr. Catherine Raymond, curator of the Burma Art Collection. This painting was part of the exhibition. Looking at Women in Contemporary Burma 2020–2022. https://www.centerforburmastudies.com/online-exhibits.html.