Age of Full Bloom

Welcome to the Slow Art Guide for Age of Full Bloom by San Minn, brought to you by National Gallery Singapore.

Inspired by the principles of slow looking and mindfulness, the Slow Art Guide will take you on a deep dive into one artwork in the Gallery. This experience is about slowing down, taking your time to look at visual art, and savouring it in a conscious and deliberate manner. This guide features mindfulness practices that invite you to contemplate art as a sensory and reflective experience.

As this mindfulness-based experience is highly introspective and invites you to be present with your thoughts and emotions, it may feel quite intense or overwhelming at times. If this is the case for you today, please feel free to step away from this audio experience, and head over to the Calm Room or any other space that feels safe to rest.

By the end of your experience with the Slow Art Guide, we hope that you will discover a deeper emotional connection with the artwork and also feel more grounded and rested in the present moment.

We will begin with a simple breathing exercise to prepare ourselves for a slow look at the artwork.

Take a moment to welcome yourself into this space. Express gratitude to yourself for taking this time out of your busy day to care for your mind, body, and spirit by connecting with visual art.

Gently bring your awareness to your breathing. Observe it. There is no need to change or modify anything. Just breathe. You may choose to close your eyes and rest them, or keep a soft gaze as you look forward.

Observe the in-breath and the out-breath, and the rhythm of your breathing. Pay attention to your breath, and notice if each breath is long and smooth, or short and quick. Breathing in, breathing out. Breathing in, breathing out.

If you wish, you can put a hand on your belly, feeling the warmth of your hand on your body, and the affection it brings to you. Sense the gentle expansion and contraction of the belly with each breath. Allow your body to rest in the breathing. Allow your breath to support you.

Breathing in, breathing out. Breathing in, breathing out.

When you feel ready, gently open your eyes.

This is Age of Full Bloom by Burmese artist San Minn. As we explore this artwork together, feel free to move around it in a way that is most comfortable for you. You may even sit on the gallery floor in front of the artwork.

Most immediately, you’ll notice the central figure in this painting – a woman standing with her arms crossed, flowers blooming out of her neck where her head should be.

What clues are present in the artwork that tell us more about who this woman is? Take a look at her outfit. The colours of her blouse are red, blue, and white. There’s a star motif on this blouse —white stars running down a strip of blue in the middle of her shirt, and also on the trim of her sleeve. The colours and motif bring to mind the national flag of the Union of Burma, which was in use before 1974. We can further deduce that this woman is from Myanmar, or Burma, by observing the long black fabric she is wearing wrapped around her waist, folded and tucked towards her left hip. This skirt very much resembles a longyi, a type of dress worn in Burmese culture by both women and men. As we continue looking at this painting, a metal chain necklace stands out. On it, the word “love” has been stitched onto the canvas.

The woman stands, arms folded over her torso. What do you read from her folded arms? Are they folded in anger? Or in defiance? Are they folded as an act of resistance, or as a means of protecting herself? Are they folded because she feels cold, and is trying to warm herself up? Or are they folded perhaps in an act of gentleness? Is she holding herself tenderly, giving herself care and love? Is she perhaps holding herself together, to keep from falling apart?

If you are comfortable to do so, try this posture too. Shift your body to stand as the woman is standing, grounding your feet into the floor, folding your arms over your waist. What emotion do you immediately feel as you cross your arms? Do you feel your shoulders tense up? Can you instead try holding your arms in a way that feels caring, in a way that makes you feel supported?

San Minn, the artist of this work, is a key figure in the early experimental artistic practice in Myanmar. Most of his artistic practice engages with themes of social and political justice. Much like his other works, this painting features a bold use of colour, forceful lines, and striking images, all assembled together to convey symbolic and often surreal content.

Age of Full Bloom was created soon after San Minn’s imprisonment between 1975 to 1978 for his involvement in the anti-government demonstration of 1974. The censorship authorities saw this work as an ominous sign when it was exhibited at the 2nd Gangaw Village Art Exhibition in 1979 and was quickly taken away. Censorship marks were printed on both the front and the back of the canvas. You can see several faint black rectangular outlines of the proscription stamp, impressed on the surface of the painting. How many censorship stamps can you count? Can you make out all seven of them?

San Minn was not deterred by the multiple instances of censorship of his art, by his imprisonment, nor by the continuing oppression of the regime.

In this painting, San Minn has depicted flowers blooming from a dignified and beautiful body. There is a soft glow around the flowers, where the yellow hue of the pain here is a lighter shade compared to the rest of the background. There are sharp thorns on the roses, the defiant pink of their petals against the murky yellow-green background. Imagine smelling their subtle fragrance.

The roses are blooming in all directions, as if growing out of the nurturing light of the woman’s body, from the energy within. They’re not growing in just one direction as plants usually do, towards the direction of the sun. Instead, they’re blooming luxuriously outwards, taking up space in the world, almost as if the life-giving power of this woman shines brighter than even the sun. Stamps of censorship and rejection surround this image, but they do not diminish its strength.

Let us, like the roses, draw a life-affirming energy from the grace of this woman. Let us draw strength from San Minn’s quiet resistance and resilience. Let us draw hope from his persistence in creating beauty and art that speaks truth to power, even in the darkest of times.

Often there are difficulties and even pain in our lives. At times, these may be hard to bear. Let us now welcome a short meditation practice. This practice is to evoke self-compassion and to support ourselves in times of need.

Call to mind a situation when things were not going smoothly for you.

As you recall this, acknowledge the emotions that this situation created for you. Perhaps it was a moment of heartache, frustration, anger, or sadness. Perhaps it was a situation of hopelessness, or one of chaos that you could not make sense of.

You may wish to put a hand on your heart and say slowly and clearly to yourself: “That hurt. That was hard.” Or maybe, just: “Ouch.”

Know that you are not alone. Anyone in your situation is likely to feel the pain too, perhaps to a different extent or in a different way, or perhaps in the same way you did. See if you can connect with at least one other person who has been in a similar situation and let yourself feel deep compassion for this other person too.

With your hand over your heart, feel its warmth radiating into your chest. Sense what words you need to hear to support yourself, to give yourself care and warmth, and speak them. You can speak them out loud, or just keep them within yourself. You can say:

May I be kind to myself. May I take good care of myself. May I protect myself from harm. May I be loved.

If you are finding it difficult to find the words, you could imagine that a dear friend is having the same problem, or struggling with the same situation. What would you say to this friend? What words would you offer to support this loved one, without giving advice? Can you offer the same words to yourself?

Allow the words to fill you gently. Slowly, open your eyes, and take a few breaths to close the practice.

If you find this practice useful, you can use it whenever you are feeling some difficulty in life. Use this practice to give yourself a soothing and supportive touch, gifting yourself words of care to show yourself compassion as you work through it.

We have now come to the end of this episode of the Slow Art Guide.

If you enjoyed this Slow Art Guide, you can check out our other episodes featuring different artworks. Each Slow Art Guide is developed with unique slow looking and mindfulness practices to help you look at an artwork meaningfully. Artworks featured in the Slow Art Guide are from The Care Collection, a selection of artworks from the National Collection that are thematically organised for programmes that support wellbeing.

If you need a dedicated space for sensory and emotional rest, you can also visit the Calm Room, located in Basement 1 of the Gallery’s City Hall Wing. In the Calm Room, you can experience a 10-minute focused mindfulness practice.

We now invite you to continue your journey throughout the Gallery, and to take your time to slow down and appreciate the art all around you.