Painted on scraps of clothing with carved soap, cigarette lighters and even syringes, Htein Lin’s artworks were his lifeline during years in Myanmar jails -- and the spark for an extraordinary love story.
“These paintings were really dangerous and also precious,” said the 46-year-old former student protest leader, who produced more than 200 works during his six-and-a-half years in jail under the junta.
“I really wanted to tell the government that locked me up for nothing: ‘you might have put me behind bars but you cannot imprison my creativity’,” he said.
Htein Lin was arrested in 1998 and imprisoned on the basis of an intercepted letter from a former “comrade” naming him as potentially still interested in opposition activity.
Jail was fraught with hardship such as beatings, solitary confinement and unsanitary conditions, but it also became his “studio”.
Using any material he could get his hands on Htein Lin – who had previously focused on performance art - channelled his creativity to express the injustices that were a part of life during decades of military rule.
