Maria is fascinated by hanging laundry. When she lived in Yangon briefly in 2008, she found that the clothing hanging on the lines outside people’s homes somehow occupied the streets, in a city where there was no public space. People were taking space, as opposed to being given it.

She saw it as an introduction to the people that couldn’t see or was not permitted to communicate with. This early experience informed her artistic practice.

Long has she considered Aung Myint an inspiration. Between Maria’s textile artwork and its repetitive folds and Aung Myint’s canvases of repetitive patterns she sees both spontaneity and sustainability in both their practices. She has asked Aung Myint to pair her work with his in an exhibition in Yangon to engage with the pulse of the city.

Maria Brinch’s participation in INK LAKE at Myanm/art has received support from Norwegian Crafts and Norwegian MFA’s support programme for freight and travel.

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DJ Bendik Basaas will be recording sounds from Maria’s residency in Myanmar – the clatter of the loom she will use to weave her pieces in Nyaung Shwe and meeting of her materials – laminate, fabric, woven mats.

Bendik Basaas: ‘In my musical piece for the opening I want to use recordings of instruments she uses to make her art of representation, at the moment of practice. The reason is to include the crowd in the visual result of her practice as well as her actual practice.’

Maria Brinch (b. 1984) lives and works in Oslo. She is graduated from Oslo Art Academy and the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her practice incorporates the social aspect of craftsmanship, where the exchange of traditional knowledge is a platform for personal narratives and political experiences across cultures, resources and assumptions. In recent years, Brinch has collaborated with artists in Yangon in Myanmar and Kampala in Uganda, where she is engaged in female artist practices.

Aung Myint is a Burmese painter and performance artist. He is considered a pioneer in experimental art, rejecting traditional romanticism and confronting social and critical issues through a range of distinctive styles and media.

Bendik Baksaas is an electronic musician, composer and DJ. Baksaas works with minimalism, techno and folk music, and graduated from the Norwegian Academy of Music.