Burmese poet, artist and activist Maung Day relocated from Yangon to a small village on the Arakan coast, near the border between Rakhine State and Irrawaddy Region, two years ago. Decades of political heavy-handedness and economic isolation in Myanmar have ensured that remote areas in the country still feel very remote, faced with challenges ranging from the lack of electricity and potable water, to persisting poverty and environmental degradation. He writes: “Political instability and violence have been everyday realities the past two years. The fishing community I live in isn’t any different. I get to see many locals and listen to their stories that have either inspired or formed an integral part of my art-making. This painting portrays a tragic event that happened in the community not long ago. A man – rumor is he was running a covert revolutionary mission, but people have also said he is just a local with a few enemies – was murdered on the beach on his way to his betel farm several miles away from the village. He was murdered and his corpse was left there at the crime scene. When the villagers found him, his dog was sitting near him. The villagers realized that it was the dog that first found the body, and waited by its side. This story both moved and saddened the locals. And like so many other murder cases here in Myanmar, the culprit has not been found out."