A woman aged 30 dressed neatly in Burmese clothing is seen in an art gallery. She is warmly welcoming visitors to the exhibition with a bright smile on her face.
Famous people and enthusiasts from the literature, art, and photography community come and support the art exhibition, hence what kinds of art will be displayed at this exhibition?
The paintings hanging on the wall are portraits of a woman’s nude beautifully photographed in various styles, and the special feature is that the woman in these paintings is a woman welcoming and greeting the guests at the art exhibition outside.
“Our society sees these nude arts as obscene images. That’s why I want to express that it is really an art,” she said.
The art name of the woman in the painting is Kore Su. She is a nude art model. A total of 61 paintings are displayed in her art exhibition.
“Nude art is actually not taking a naked photo. If taking a naked photo, it is just naked. That is called naked photography. Nude art means that everything is already complete. It has the meaning of perfection. When a naked photo is taken, it is divided into categories like Boudoir, Glamour, Naked Photography, Erotic, and Pornography. These categories I mentioned just now don’t have the purpose of nude art. It is just shooting a photo because they want to take a naked photo, not nude art. Nude Art is an art showing how beautiful a male or female body is. It means adding art to the body,” she explained.
The paintings at the exhibition are nude art paintings which are portraits of the natural beauty of a naked woman that is beautifully photographed from various angles.
“I want to send a message that nude photography and paintings, like this, are not to be ashamed of, and it is just art,” she said.
There are criticisms of the society of Myanmar, which has not yet escaped from the shadow of conservative ideas, for creating such natural nude art by a woman of Myanmar.
“Really, it cannot be said that it’s wrong for those people to criticize nude body art. As for the society of Myanmar, they don’t exactly know the differences between nude art, pornography, and sexy photos. They are also not familiar with this nude art, and they haven’t heard about this before. That’s why they criticize this nude art because they don’t know and are not familiar with it. I understand those societies. Therefore, if we see and feel this as art, we need intelligence about art and also a big heart. As long as society has the mindset that shooting a naked body is a bad thing, they will not enjoy this art. A person who feels and accepts it as an art would not criticize like this,” she said in response to the criticism.
She has been working as a nude art model since 2019 and has already taken many nude art photos over the past 5 years, some of which have even been featured in international magazines.
Although she stands as a nude art model due to her passion and self-concept, Kore Su has a calm demeanor and soft-spoken beauty. In addition, she is a lover of the minimalist lifestyle, so her lifestyle is very simple and easy to be satisfied with.
Not only that, but her perception of art is still great. She is on this path of nude art because of her strong passion, and she is a woman who strongly responds to society’s contempt and insult against a Nude Art model. Therefore, she is a woman who cherishes her morals and values her dignity so that scandals and bad news do not come out. Even so, as a nude art model, she still faces the misconceptions of Myanmar’s society, which is not open-minded.
“The challenge is that people don’t have a broad view of this nude art. And this nude art is not yet familiar here. We will have to wait for some time to get to know and understand this. My nude art is not at the right time here because I initially introduced it earlier than the time that people will accept and understand it. Right now, society cannot accept it yet. And Myanmar culture does not yet accept this and just sees this to be Western culture, so there are a few culture clashes as well,” Ma Su Ya Min Aung said.
Kore Su’s attitude and outlook on her life are simple, just like the way she dresses. She is also a person who wants to freely pass through the period between birth and death, keeping her mind focused on the present. As a result, it seems she also believes that loving and accepting one’s own existence is the best weapon to live a good life.
“Everyone already has their own beauty. We also need to love our bodies. I want each and every woman to be self-confident about her body. Our bodies will be with us along with our lives. If a woman does not love her body and if she does not take good care of her body, she will not be happy in life because she will fight herself every day. Fighting with myself is the worst thing in life because there is always an internal conflict with myself. Hence, I would like to urge all the women to accept their own beauty and their reality,” she said.
She looks young for her age because she consistently focuses on what she believes and lives a good life, with a clear and strong attitude, and not paying attention to the criticisms of society.
Although she is only around 5 feet tall, she is an outstanding and well-known woman among the crowd because she has self-confidence and an open-minded positive view. Moreover, she possesses a healthy and beautiful body without any special preparation surgery.
Due to being a person who has accepted her existence and reality well, she is also a woman who wants to fight the conservative ideas and rules of the society of Myanmar which oppress females in various ways.
“Most women want to shoot boudoir or nude photography, but they do not dare to say and express it. This is an unvoiced truth. Every woman knows and feels this nude art. Surely, people never look back at their bodies. Even if they look in the mirror, they only look at their face. People can see how their body is positioned, and what their back is like, by taking a photo of their body. When we see our beautiful bodies, we realize how beautiful we are. People are only interested in others. They look at others all the time. They forget to look inside themselves. I do not want to urge that every woman should shoot this nude. But as for women who have that kind of feeling, if they want to try it once, I urge them to try it and shoot it. This is the beauty of a woman. This is no shame. We also cannot get our youth back when we get old. It will be memorable every time we look back at these pictures,” she expressed about the nude art for the woman.
Before the society of Myanmar had not widely felt and accepted nude art yet, she initially introduced it and she stood up for oppressed women in the society of Myanmar, by living as a role model herself to clarify and eliminate the misconceptions of the society on a woman who shoots Nude Art. It can be said that her positive attitude and act will impact the women of Myanmar who have been oppressed and framed with conservative and traditional cultural practices for ages.
Kore Hsu works as a professional nude art model and also writes as a hobby. In addition, she is planning to write a story about the nude art photos she has taken.
“I believe that the real shame is the shame and fear of doing evil (Hiri and Ottappa). I accept that it is shameful to do bad things. That’s why it is not shameful for me to take nude photos of my own body. It is not a shame in real society,” she said about her belief in her nude art.