Sawangwongse Yawnghwe comes from the Yawnghwe royal family of Shan. His grandfather, Sao Shwe Thaik, was the first president of the Union of Burma (1948–1962) after the country gained independence from Britain in 1948. Shwe Thaik died in prison following the 1962 military coup by General Ne Win. Afterward, Yawnghwe’s family was driven into exile in Thailand, then later escaping to Canada, where Yawnghwe grew up. Yawnghwe’s painting and installation practice engages politics with reference to his family history as well as current and historical events in his country. Family photographs provide the basis for a pictorial language through which the artist calls attention to events in Myanmar, suggesting that existing archives cannot reveal a nation’s entire truth. In addition, Yawnghwe’s map works chart the conflicts between opioids, revolutionary armies, minority ethnicities, mining and gas pipelines, the armament of generals, as well as state genocide against its minorities. Yawnghwe’s work intends to bring discernible order to a complex political situation.