Poet Marc Nair & Artist Nicola Anthony participate in a Mini residency at the historic Secretariat Building in Yangon.
This video documents the making of work during the mini-residency at the Secretariat Building of Yangon, Myanmar, in 2018. The photograph series produced as part of the project documents the artistic intervention at the Secretariat, with artists Nicola Anthony and Marc Nair.
Created as a documentation of the artist intervention, the photographic series is also an artwork within itself. "We focused on the idea of art intersecting with such an historical and official space. Why is art allowed in? What does that say about the importance of art and the transition of the meaning of the building? We brought poetry into the building and a number of art interventions: Firstly Marc wrote a poem inspired by the Secretariat, which was hand written and split into discrete lines which were placed in the space. In corners, inside cracks and crevices, and onto the winding staircase. Nicola then created spontaneous artistic interventions by placing gold leaf, inked paper, miniature sculptures, and winding thread into the same space in an around the poetry.”
The interventions were left on show indefinitely, some will erode away or be removed, some will remain forever. The final photo series and poetry was exhibited at Myanm/art Gallery in Yangon during March 2018. A limited edition of 20 photo boxes were also produced for sale. The outer box was handmade by a local man in the market square of Yangon.
Residency organised by curator Nathalie Johnston and Myanm/art Gallery (Myanmar), in partnership with Intersections Galley (Singapore)
