I spoke on the same panel as Ian at BSC, and for my presentation wanted to provide audience members with a guide to better understand the unique constraints facing artists in Burma during the censorship period. My talk focused on the mechanics of censorship of painting, and how it imposed limitations on artists’ channels of expression but also drove them to develop a new vocabulary that is crucial to understanding art produced from 1964 onwards. I chose this starting point because of Ne Win’s 1964 Code that regulated art exhibitions and formed the guidelines, however ambiguous, for how the Censorship Board judged artwork.

I spent the summer of 2013 interviewing artists about their experiences with censorship – which, if any, of their works had been rejected by the Censorship Board; the topics or subject matter that triggered censorship; and the mechanics of censorship in Burma. My research centered on the overarching question of why Burma followed a unique path of censorship in contrast to other socialist governments at the time. I wanted to know who staffed the Board, how they functioned, and even the dynamic and interactions between artists and Board members. To me, by seeing both banned paintings and paintings that made it past the censors, we could have a closer glimpse into artistic life under censorship and even the fears and paranoia of the military governments.

From my conversations with artists, and also a Censorship Board official, four or five major themes emerged of content in paintings that triggered censorship, and in turn helped to construct a sense of the military regime’s aspirations of national identity and the image they hoped to project. Most often, and on an ad hoc basis, the Board censored paintings with an undercurrent of a political message, abstract paintings, prolific use of the colors black, red and white, and perceived unorthodox treatment of Burmese culture (nudes or unconventional depictions of Buddhist imagery). Censorship officially ended in August 2012, but in my opinion artists are still walking a fine line to test the boundaries of freedom of expression within the visual arts.

In August 2013, on my last day in Yangon that summer, I stopped by Lokanat Galleries and found myself confronted by two black, red and white nude paintings by the artist Sandar Khine. Marked for sale and elegantly framed they appeared to shatter the Board’s former guidelines with their rather defiant stance and prominent position on the gallery wall. I departed Myanmar thinking that I had seen proof of the demise of the censorship regime and that a new space in visual arts would emerge for artists to experiment with non-traditional forms and tackle a wider berth of social commentary. However, in July 2014, I spoke to the artist and learned that those same paintings had lasted only a day in the exhibit until the Board rejected them for nudity.

The legal code and regulations outlining art exhibits might be evolving towards greater freedoms on paper, but how these relaxed guidelines regarding art exhibitions and overall freedom of expression are implemented remains to be seen. Until then, contemporary artists in Myanmar will continue to produce work in an ambiguous environment for freedom of expression. Will the remnants of an irrelevant Censorship Board fade away into the background? Or will new forms of censorship surface to shape the visual arts in more subtle but fine-tuned ways?

Melissa Carlson is a recent graduate of Johns Hopkins University – SAIS and is interested in censorship, national identity, and painting in Myanmar.