Hi, I’m Shwe Ye — a Burmese creative and design historian in training based in New York City.
I believe in the power of looking back to move forward. Through my work, I explore the layers of history to uncover stories that inspire, spark awareness, and build spaces where others can reconnect with their own voice.
With a background spanning biological sciences, psychology, curation, design history, and social media, I bring an interdisciplinary lens to creative strategy—one that’s both thoughtful and bold. Whether I’m developing narrative-driven projects, curating impactful experiences, or crafting meaningful content, my goal is to create ripples of positive change.
Fashion Film
Client: Project.a.artgroup
Role: Dramaturg
Location: New York City, 2025
Pure Negation is a fashion film created for Project.a.artgroup in collaboration with Margarida Feijão, an MFA Fashion student at The New School Parsons. As the dramaturg, my role focused on shaping the conceptual framework of the piece. I crafted an aesthetic language rooted in ideas of negation, imagination, and the unseen.
“I see what lies beyond. In the horizon is the end. Light shines through its progression towards the dark. It’s journey towards its outer bound constitutes its shine. It’s will is conditioned upon its lack and it looks ahead in darkness as it propels its shine. As such, it is through the dark that light is. White is the presence of all colors, while black is not. Light and physical pigments must be involved to reveal white as appear in its physical presence. Without light everything is black. Finding the emptiness within the constraint of existing space. In reality; In imagination.
I am my pure negation. You seem to exist through what you have seen.”
Pure Negation
Fashion Film
Client: Project.a.artgroup
Role: Dramaturg
Location: New York City, 2024
The Bionic and Organic is a fashion film that explores the tension between synthetic and natural forces expressed through refracted movements, mirrored fragments, and circular motion. As the dramaturg, my role was to shape the conceptual narrative and symbolic language of the film, guiding the exploration of these opposing forces and the inevitable cycles they create.
“The bionic and organic. The expanded refractory fragments that hold in circular motion. Clockwise and anticlockwise. Fighting, against, towards; A GAZE. The foundation is beneath, step upon it and step within it. Stand atop it. This is where we stand, surrounded by the nodes of the extended self and fleeting fragments of reflection. It will turn and turn around again.
Catch a glimpse. Gape at me. Refraction, reflection, it, and me.”
The Bionic and Organic
37°32’17.0”N 126°50’20.7”E
Art Film
Client: Project.a.artgroup
Role: Dramaturg
Location: WestBeth, New York City, 2024
Rooted in themes of loss, and the quiet stillness of life in suspension, 37°32’17.0”N 126°50’20.7”E traces the fragile space between absence and becoming. As the dramaturg, my role focused on shaping the conceptual narrative and symbolic language of the piece. In collaboration with June, we explored his personal experience of being stuck — both physically and creatively. The film reflects on this state of stagnation, but also gestures toward the possibility of renewal: the slow and delicate process of rebirth that follows recovery.
“The beginning is the moment where the dark excess of the hardened past oozes out, conditioning the trajectory of the life of the being. Life cuts through the metaphors and platitudes in order to set in motion the journey of the being.
To journey forward is to depart. The seed must stretch its limbs to find the bud within itself. Bearing our own weight, we march on, entombed in the exigencies of the beyond.
Ultimately, all work is always to recreate, not to be free. The tree remembers the seed. In the end, it is up to us to find ourselves in our own space.”
The Asylum I Call Home
Collaboration | Theingi Thann
Narrative Film
Role: Script, Art Direction, Model
New York City, 2021
The Asylum I Call Home is a 2021 short narrative film that explores my journey of coming out and navigating gender roles within a Southeast Asian family. As the eldest daughter in a household that expected a son, I grew up questioning the meaning of femininity and masculinity, especially while watching my younger brother grow up beside me. This experience shaped how I saw myself—not just as a girl, but as someone embodying both masculine and feminine traits. The film reflects on how clothing, beauty standards, family expectations, and the independence I found after leaving home at 13 helped me embrace my queer identity. It’s a story of self-discovery, cultural tension, and the search for belonging.
In this project, I contributed both as a scriptwriter and a model, helping bring the story to life through a blend of personal narrative and visual storytelling.
Fleet
Client: DAWN X FUTURE
Role: Creative Producer, Talent Management
Yangon, Myanmar, 2021
In 2021, I produced and directed a strategic donation-based gallery opening for DAWN Gallery and the FUTURE Art Collective. The event was co-hosted by visual artist Nyunt and sponsored by Pepsi Myanmar.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the event was invite-only and operated with full government approval and health protocol compliance. We invited emerging local creatives such as AJOHN, Terry Win, Amera Hpone, Bunny Phyoe, and Nida Taylor, all of whom attended the event.
The event raised a total of 7,350,000 kyats (4465 USD). All profits were donated to a local charity supporting COVID-19 relief efforts.
