Htein Lin repurposes the Myanmar script as a multifaceted visual and political language. Each letter acts as a vessel of memory, resistance, and identity, reflecting the artist’s deeply personal and national journey as a student activist, political prisoner, and artist navigating Myanmar’s decades of conflict, censorship, and transformation.
Htein Lin’s innovative use of unconventional materials began after his release from prison in 2004, where he had secretly created hundreds of paintings using smuggled materials. Finally free, but unable to afford canvases, he turned to discarded recycled cardboard sheets drying in the sun, embracing their resilience. This act of improvisation marked the beginning of the Recycled series, first exhibited at Lokanat Gallery in Yangon (2005), and later in London (2008).
From 2018 onwards, he incorporated Myanmar words and letters into his work, using text as a direct response to social and political reality. The word “Rohingya” was among the first, created amidst the government’s ethnic cleansing campaign. Subsequent pieces explore themes such as “Trust,” “Prison,” and “Red Tape,” reclaiming language as a means of social critique.
More recently, Htein Lin has painted the names of Yangon townships rich with personal resonance Kyimyindine, Kamayut as well as sites linked to his imprisonment and activism, including Pajau and Myaungmya. After the 2025 earthquake, he added names of heavily affected regions like Sagaing, Mandalay, and Inwa, embedding collective grief into the distorted script.
Alphabet continues his exploration of material language, following works like Signs of the Times (using discarded acrylic signboards), Soap Blocked (a prison soap map of Myanmar acquired by the Singapore Art Museum), and sculptural furniture crafted from wooden wagon wheels, preserving fading rural heritage. His Skirting the Issue series addressed gender taboos by painting on women’s donated skirts, accompanied by their written views on cultural superstitions.
အက္ခရာ (Ek-kha-ya) repurposes the Myanmar script as a living archive layered with socio-political meaning, bearing witness to the ongoing struggle and unyielding spirit of the Myanmar people.
