Artist in Residence Sokhorn Meas from Phnom Penh sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia is in Long Beach on a 3 month visa to create his art. Meas is creating a sculpture using seven thousand chopsticks and wire. The piece, along with others by 33 artists from Cambodia, the U.S. and Korea will be displayed at Hancock University beginning Friday through May 7. (Brittany Murray / Press Telegram)04/08/2010
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram
LONG BEACH - It's called "Self-portrait as a Needle." And artist-in-residence Meas Sokhorn's art piece, which sprawls nearly from floor to ceiling, certainly qualifies as a work in his specialty, called large-scale installation.
While Meas' work may be a kind of centerpiece, it won't be all that's on display. He is one of 33 artists whose work is to be shown at an exhibit opening today with a free public reception at Hancock University from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., entitled Global Hybrid II.
The show builds on a July 2009 show called Global Hybrid I in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, that featured Cambodian, Cambodian-American and French artists with Khmer connections.
It is also an outgrowth of a show in Long Beach last April at the 2nd City Council Arts and Performance Space, called Transformation II: Bringing Contemporary Khmer/American Art to Long Beach.
The series of shows are part of an ongoing collaboration between several groups of artists and arts supporters, including Lydia Parusol, the art manager and curator of the Meta House gallery in Phnom Penh, and Denise Scott, who is also curating the exhibit and splits time living in Cambodia and the U.S.
Like last year's show, the current exhibit is a kind of a moveable feast in sculpture, paint and multimedia of contemporary art and artists both from Cambodia and abroad.
Meas, for example, is in the midst of a three-month residency supported by the U.S. State Department. He has been working for seven weeks on "Self-portrait" which is an abstract, flowing sculpture constructed from about 7,000 chopsticks.
The day before the show opened, Meas was still filling in his piece and bemoaning the time constraints.
"The more time I have, the longer the song I can sing," he said with a smile as he snipped off the end of a chopstick.
In another part of the large open space, Parusol displayed a multimedia piece by artist Chath Piersath, an artist, who fled Cambodia after the Pol-Pot regime to Massachusetts but has since returned to his homeland.
The interactive piece is a collection of blocks that can be flipped and rearranged, like a puzzle, to create different faces and identities.
Parusol said the piece is metaphoric in many ways of the changing faces of Cambodia and the country's struggle to find and shape its own identity. This becomes particularly challenging as the once closed nation continues to grow into and be shaped by the global community.
Parusol says in Cambodia, young artists who don't paint Buddhas or classical dancers have a hard time being recognized. Art education is nearly non-existent in schools and there is virtually no funding for the arts and very little interest among the country's leadership, she says.
As a result, many artists use "found objects" or discarded materials to create art and tell stories.
One artist whose work is on display is Sokemtevy Oeur, a 26-year-old woman who has stirred the art scene in her home country with her portrayal, on canvas and in her own life, of women.
Global Hybrid II and other efforts by places like Meta House are trying create avenues for emerging artists.
Parusol says in Cambodia's younger middle class there are flickers of knowledge and appreciation of modern art.
"It's happening slowly, slowly," Parusol said. "But, you know, it's small steps, step by step."
Not unlike what can be made of 7,000 chopsticks.
greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291
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Want to go?
What: Global Hybrid II art exhibit
Where: Hancock University, 1600 Long Beach Blvd.
When: Monday-Friday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. until May 7, or by appointment at 562-591-7080.
On the Web
See more photos at presstelegram.com.
While Meas' work may be a kind of centerpiece, it won't be all that's on display. He is one of 33 artists whose work is to be shown at an exhibit opening today with a free public reception at Hancock University from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., entitled Global Hybrid II.
The show builds on a July 2009 show called Global Hybrid I in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, that featured Cambodian, Cambodian-American and French artists with Khmer connections.
It is also an outgrowth of a show in Long Beach last April at the 2nd City Council Arts and Performance Space, called Transformation II: Bringing Contemporary Khmer/American Art to Long Beach.
The series of shows are part of an ongoing collaboration between several groups of artists and arts supporters, including Lydia Parusol, the art manager and curator of the Meta House gallery in Phnom Penh, and Denise Scott, who is also curating the exhibit and splits time living in Cambodia and the U.S.
Like last year's show, the current exhibit is a kind of a moveable feast in sculpture, paint and multimedia of contemporary art and artists both from Cambodia and abroad.
Meas, for example, is in the midst of a three-month residency supported by the U.S. State Department. He has been working for seven weeks on "Self-portrait" which is an abstract, flowing sculpture constructed from about 7,000 chopsticks.
The day before the show opened, Meas was still filling in his piece and bemoaning the time constraints.
"The more time I have, the longer the song I can sing," he said with a smile as he snipped off the end of a chopstick.
In another part of the large open space, Parusol displayed a multimedia piece by artist Chath Piersath, an artist, who fled Cambodia after the Pol-Pot regime to Massachusetts but has since returned to his homeland.
The interactive piece is a collection of blocks that can be flipped and rearranged, like a puzzle, to create different faces and identities.
Parusol said the piece is metaphoric in many ways of the changing faces of Cambodia and the country's struggle to find and shape its own identity. This becomes particularly challenging as the once closed nation continues to grow into and be shaped by the global community.
Parusol says in Cambodia, young artists who don't paint Buddhas or classical dancers have a hard time being recognized. Art education is nearly non-existent in schools and there is virtually no funding for the arts and very little interest among the country's leadership, she says.
As a result, many artists use "found objects" or discarded materials to create art and tell stories.
One artist whose work is on display is Sokemtevy Oeur, a 26-year-old woman who has stirred the art scene in her home country with her portrayal, on canvas and in her own life, of women.
Global Hybrid II and other efforts by places like Meta House are trying create avenues for emerging artists.
Parusol says in Cambodia's younger middle class there are flickers of knowledge and appreciation of modern art.
"It's happening slowly, slowly," Parusol said. "But, you know, it's small steps, step by step."
Not unlike what can be made of 7,000 chopsticks.
greg.mellen@presstelegram.com, 562-499-1291
--------
Want to go?
What: Global Hybrid II art exhibit
Where: Hancock University, 1600 Long Beach Blvd.
When: Monday-Friday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. until May 7, or by appointment at 562-591-7080.
On the Web
See more photos at presstelegram.com.
2 comments:
Great job Mr. Meas! Well to be proud...
Michael: I thought child sex is legal in Cambodia, my friends all told me to come here to fuck a fresh pussy. So why arrest me, WTF? Khmer liars, Don't you love my big cock, Cambo??
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