Shwe Wutt Hmon

Shwe Wutt Hmon is an emerging visual artist and photographer from Myanmar, now based in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Shwe decided to leave Myanmar a few months after the military coup in February 2021, as it was no longer safe to continue working as an artist and photographer in the country. She moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand, in November 2021. To stay legally in Thailand, she joined a martial arts school in Chiang Mai during her first year, which cost her 55,000 baht—all the savings she had at the time. As a migrant and exiled artist who lost what she believed she belonged to, Shwe struggled to find a stable livelihood. During her second year outside her motherland, Shwe was forced to travel around Southeast Asia for numerous visa runs to maintain her stay in Thailand. Shwe acknowledges that her position is enormously privileged compared to war refugees, stateless persons, and migrant workers, as she is still able to live legitimately in a safe place and afford the cost of visa runs.

Using and combining travel log images of her visa run trips to Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi, and Vientiane, along with collected materials such as scanned copies of travel documents like her Myanmar passport, occasional announcements from the Myanmar Embassy in Thailand, Google Map location images of her visits to Thai-Myanmar border areas, screenshots of necessary requirements and supporting documents, and photographs of her martial arts training, Shwe's "Extension To Stay" photo-collage self-portrait series portrays her roots in Myanmar, her migration to and shelter in Thailand, and her life in transition on the pretty lost-road. This series, which printed on traditional Saa Paper common in Northern Thailand, narrates the heavy burdens of displacement and migration in a chaotic, humorous and self-sarcastic style from a personal story.