Cambodia's art revolution reaches global market

Feb 29, 2012
By Ellie Dyer
DPA

Phnom Penh - From the artworks of the capital's burgeoning galleries to the distinct school of design evolving in the north-western town of Battambang, Cambodian art is increasingly reaching a global market.

Cambodia's home-grown artists are showing in major Asian cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore. A season of Cambodian art is also planned for New York in 2013 while auction house Christie's is holding its first sale in the Kingdom in March.

Central to the buzz that artists are beginning to attract are the diverse influences that have shaped their lives and work.

'Artists have two obvious wells of inspiration: first, Cambodia's glorious history of highly detailed and ornamented temples and murals, and secondly, the naive, emotionally charged, post-Khmer Rouge, art-by-accessibility,' said Matthew Tito Cuenca, who is helping to organize Christie's charity sale on March 11.

Radio Current Affairs Documentary: Beyond Apsara - contemporary arts in Cambodia

Performing artists are moving beyond classical Khmer dance (photo: Mike)

Liam Cochrane reported this story on Wednesday, December 28, 2011
ABC News Radio Australia

Click the control below to listen to the audio program:

Click here to download the audio program in MP3

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Hello I'm Elizabeth Jackson and this is a radio current affairs documentary. When you think of the Asian nation of Cambodia, you might think of ancient temples, rice paddies, the Khmer Rouge and the years of civil war in the '80s and '90s.

There are still plenty of tales of hardship and poverty in Cambodia, but there's also a booming tourism industry and a young population keen to embrace the modern world. The influences of America and Korea might be prominent in popular culture but Cambodia has a small but growing contemporary arts movement of its own.

Liam Cochrane reports.

OEUR SOKUNTEVY: For the local Khmer, I think maybe they don't know about artists at all. I tell them I'm an artist, I'm drawing, and they think maybe I'm architecture or something. But it's just step by step, one day they might see.

DANA LANGLOIS: The desire is there. The intention is there. The passion, the drive, it's all there. But there's this lack of resources, lack of tools, lack of language, there's a lack of so many things that kind of stalls or stagnates that process in many cases, but not all.

SUON BUN RITH: Without all this new energy, and then the culture will stop and culture cannot stop. It has to go, has to continue.

Reyum still alive

The Cambodian culture can count on the Reyum institute to be on display (Photo: D.R., Cambodge Soir Hebdo)

17 August 2010
By H.S.
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Tola Ek
Click here to read the article in French

Reyum, the art and Khmer culture institute, will not close its door as some newspapers have claimed.

Several rumors are making the round on the potential disappearance of Reyum, claiming that the institute “will not last”, being “the victim of corruption among its managers,” Deum Ampil and Rasmei Kampuchea announced. The claims were rejected by Ly Daravuth, the institute structural director, who is now on business trip in Europe.

The institute solely relies on private funding, but it will try to diversify its funding sources in order to assure its long term cultural programming. Ly Daravuth said: “We are in a restructuring phase, we cannot allow the same programming as we had before.” He also confided that a staff reduction is unavoidable due to funding shortage.

Reyum was founded by Ly Daravuth and Ingrid Muan in 2000. The institute’s mission is to preserve, promote and revive the Cambodian culture, both at the traditional and contemporary levels, through a number of events, such as expositions and publication of documentaries.

Cambodian Dreams, Far From Home

Chumvan Sodhachivy in “Khmeropédies I & II,” Emmanuèle Phuon’s work at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. (Andrea Mohin/The New York Times)

June 25, 2010
By GIA KOURLAS
The New York Times

The French-Cambodian choreographer Emmanuèle Phuon, fondly known as Manou during her time as a dancer with Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project, digs into her past in “Khmeropédies I & II.” She began training at 5 at the Royal Ballet of Cambodia; in her new two-part work, which opened on Thursday night at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, she applies Western ideas to traditional Cambodian dance.

Ms. Phuon explores the idea of prayer in “Khmeropédies I,” a solo for Chumvan Sodhachivy. An agile dancer who maintains a sensual dreaminess in contrast to the rigidity of her positions, she performs in front of a grainy image that, over time, appears to be the stone face of a deity. She is also a mesmerizing actress and assumes different characters to tell a story, as a program note explains, “to amuse the gods.”

Hunching her back while coughing excessively, Ms. Chumvan Sodhachivy is suddenly elderly; a sweeter voice, yet somehow insincere, transforms her into a coquette. Dialogue is not translated — Ms. Phuon relies on the language of the body. As Ms. Chumvan Sodhachivy plays with dynamics, darting across the floor with her long hair flying or holding a pose, you begin to see how the merging of Western and Cambodian dance could work — at least kinetically — within a more potent concept.

In the second part of “Khmeropédies,” the idea starts to crack. Sam Sathya, as a teacher, finds herself at odds with her students — Chey Chankethya and Phon Sopheap join Ms. Chumvan Sodhachivy — who are eager to push the boundaries of Cambodian dance. She leads her three dancers in a series of exercises; eventually Mr. Phon Sopheap breaks away to practice his signature role, the monkey.

This time Ms. Phuon uses subtitles. As the women stand, swishing their arms backward and forward with hypnotic efficiency, Mr. Phon Sopheap, literally bouncing off the floor in his effort to flip like a silky animal, says: “Look at the women. They have it so easy.”

Within this strict world, Ms. Phuon shows the struggle between generations by staging a mini-rebellion. After Ms. Sam Sathya reaches into the folds of her purple pants to answer a pink mobile phone and leaves the stage, the others are free to jazz up their Cambodian dancing with a bit of funk.

What they come up with is watered down: movement that hints at little beyond the flash of a music video or filtered hip-hop. Instead of showing us how Cambodian dance can live in a contemporary world without losing its power, as Yasuko Yokoshi did with Japanese traditional dance in her luminous “Tyler Tyler,” Ms. Phuon creates a story about such possibilities.

It’s unsatisfying: the potential, as we see, isn’t as riveting as the real thing. Ms. Sam Sathya, ravishing in her airiness — her back forms a graceful base, her fingers arch like leaves in a windstorm, and her delicate feet hold everything in place — shows how, along with natural talent and resilience, training is everything.

Performances of “Khmeropédies I & II” continue through Saturday at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, 450 West 37th Street, Manhattan; (212) 868-4444, bacnyc.org.

Artistic Creation Blossoms In Vacant Lots [in Long Beach]

URBAN ACROBATICS. Three members of the Collage Dance Theatre troupe rehearse a dance routine before their collaboration with the Khmer Arts Academy Cambodian performers on March 19 and 20. The scaffolding is erected at the corner of Anaheim Street and Walnut Avenue as part of the Arts Council’s A LOT series. (Gazette photo by Thomas Wasper)

Friday, March 12, 2010
By Darcy Leigh Richardson
Editor
Grunion Gazette (Long Beach, California, USA)

Many may look at a vacant lot and equate it with blank, empty space filled with negative connotations.

Starting March 19, residents should be prepared to alter their perspective about these lots.

The Arts Council for Long Beach plans to transform empty, blighted, urban lots into beautiful, thought provoking, awe-inspiring spaces of creative art.

Deemed the “A LOT Series,” the first installment will feature a free original performance from Collage Dance Theatre and Long Beach’s Khmer Arts Academy at 6 p.m. Friday, March 19, and Saturday, March 20, in the lot at the corner of East Anaheim Street and Walnut Avenue (across the street from the Mark Twain Library, 1401 E. Anaheim St.).

Craig Watson, executive director of the Arts Council, said the series is possible because of a $75,500 two-year grant from the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

The grant was specifically marked for arts organizations creating public art and performance in empty lots, Watson added.

“The idea is to take art out of the galleries, museums and theaters, and to make it more accessible to the community,” Watson said.

“We’ve done (installations) in empty storefronts before, but we’ve been wanting to do something outside for a while, especially in underused neighborhoods. We’re partnering with the RDA (Long Beach Redevelopment Agency), and since 45% of the city falls into the RDA area, we have a lot to work with.”

The lot is in the center of Cambodia Town, and the dance performance, called “Expulsion,” will chronicle the story of how a family escapes the Khmer Rouge Communist regime in Cambodia.

Serey Tet, managing director of the Khmer Arts Academy, said the organization was founded in 2002 to offer young Cambodian-Americans and Cambodian immigrants the opportunity to learn traditional dance.

“The Khmer form of dance is 1,000 years old and functions as a medium connecting heaven to earth,” Tet said.

“The dancers’ movements are slow and the story’s lyrics are translated using hand gestures. The gestures express beliefs and the cycle of life.”

The Khmer Academy’s collaboration with the Collage dancers will be very different for the Cambodian performers, Tet said.

Choreographed by Sothavy Khut, the dancers will wear more modern costumes and perform to contemporary music while incorporating the traditional Cambodian dance movements and gestures.

“We think the story of Khmer Rouge is very important because most Cambodians that are here (in Long Beach) are survivors of the Killing Fields,” Tet said. “There are good and bad memories, but sometimes parents won’t talk to their children about it. We don’t want our children to forget any of it and to understand what it was about.”

Heidi Duckler, artistic director of Collage Dance Theatre, said performing in outdoor spaces isn’t a new concept for the dancers. In fact, it’s where they are most comfortable.

A two- and three-story scaffolding has been built on the lot that dancers will use during the performance.

“The lot is a wide open space with a white picket fence around it,” Duckler said.

“The lot is covered in gravel, so it has a very urban feel. The Cambodian dancers, four females, will begin the evening with their story and then our four male dancers will tell the story of Adam and Eve and Cain and Abel. Both are about exiled, but for different reasons.”

When the performance ends, a panel of arts leaders will discuss public art, and how place and history is expressed in the performance.

“The concept is about the potential that empty space has for all of us,” Duckler said.

“There are different ways that the arts can focus on current and relevant issues that speak to historical times.”

Cardboard seating will be provided, but attendees are welcome to bring chairs, blankets and picnic dinners.

For more information, visit www.artslb.org.

The Nightingale Project

(Photo by Barbara Peacock)

March 12, 2010
Photo District News

Lifestyle and kids photographer Barbara Peacock of Westford, Massachusetts spent several weeks last summer teaching art and photography in Cambodia. Peacock is the founder of a nonprofit organization called The Nightingale Project, which helps the disadvantaged through art. Her partner on this project is Tamison Rose, an artist and former Westford School Committee member. They spent two weeks teaching art and photography to children of orphanages near Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

Peacock was teaching drawing and photography to children at a Buddhist temple in Westford, and the idea of Cambodia seemed to be a perfect starting place for The Nightingale Project. When the Khmer Rouge controlled Cambodia from 1975-1979, their systematic genocide and social engineering killed approximately 85 percent of all professional and intellectual people. "If you wore eye glasses you were considered an intellectual and you might be killed. We felt that teaching art in such a country would be greatly needed and welcomed, and it was," says Peacock. Peacock and Tamison were able to raise donations from local Westford residents, including a $500 donation from monk Ajhan David of Wat Buddhahavana of Massachusetts, the Buddhist temple in Westford.

The Nightingale Project's mission is to teach art to children who would never have the opportunity, so orphanages made the most sense on this trip. The goal was to show that art can be produced anywhere with almost any indigenous resources. Peacock and Rose visited one orphanage of 17 children, all of whom were HIV positive. They made their primary focus the orphanage run by the Assistance to Poor Children Agency or APCA. The orphanage, located 40 minutes from Phnom Penh, houses more than 70 children and was founded by two men who met on the Vietnamese border under the regime of Pol Pot. "They provide more than room and board. They are emotionally engaged with the kids and are all about learning right and wrong so there is a sense of family," Rose said. As part of their arts teaching, they also tried to find out what was needed in these villages. In one village, the school desperately needed a toilet, and so with their collected donations they were able to install a toilet with running water and a sink. For the children of APCA they made gifts of beautifully illustrated books on the history of art and Asian art.

The appeal of art is universal. "Art and the process of creative thinking transcend all cultures and languages. With a few hand gestures, a quick demonstration, some warm smiles and a little singing from Ms. Tamison, the children were able to follow along and create beautiful pieces of art," Peacock says. "Merely taking and seeing a digital photograph would produce the biggest look of wonder and massive, joyous smiles. At the end of the day they would say, in well-spoken English, 'I love you in my heart.' And we love them in ours," she adds.

Peacock is planning two trips per year to Cambodia for photographers who would like to "travel with a purpose." They would work with the orphans and the people in the remote villages as well as tour Phnom Penh and travel to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat and Angkor Tom. As a passionate photographer, Peacock feels that travel feeds an artist with inspiration. For more information about the Nightingale Project and the photographic trips please visit www.thenightingaleproject.com.

Making connections at Angkor

Mon, Jun 22, 2009
By Clarissa Tan
The Business Times

THERE is poor and there is poor.

In Singapore, being poor may mean you have never stepped into a fancy restaurant. In Cambodia, it likely means you have never tasted meat.

This is the kind of overwhelming divide between industrialised countries and emerging nations that we rarely have to face head on.

Except, of course, when we travel.

And Siem Reap - home of the breathtakingly beautiful Angkor temples, situated in one of the poorest nations on earth - is one place where the two worlds collide. Tourists flock here; they give the begging children dollars, euros, pennies, baht. But is there a more durable, responsible way for travellers to even begin to bridge the gap, a way that ensures the dignity of both sides?

Sewing school in Siem Reap

At least one hotel in Siem Reap is approaching this in a systematic, grassroots way. And it's a five-star hotel, no less.

The stylish, boutique Hotel de la Paix - at about US$300 per night for its cheapest rooms, way beyond the dreams of most Cambodians - has a programme that helps its guests foster ties with organisations such as orphanages and schools, if they wish.

In their rooms, all patrons will find a booklet called Connections, which offers to get them acquainted with the NGOs and institutions that run such projects. Guests can also choose to provide school supplies, rice or potable water, or the hotel can help them customise their own sponsorship package.

"Some people ask why you would choose to stay in a hotel such as ours, apparently insulated from the world," says general manager Nick Downing.

"I tend to look at it from the other side. Hotels and tourism organisations such as ours help bring awareness to the country in which we operate. We are instrumental in bringing people and resources to assist the development of the country that would otherwise not happen.

"However, I don't believe in 'guilt tourism' and we do not push people to participate. All we do is present options in a subtle and non-confronting manner."

The hotel, he says, was conceived with the social context in mind.

"Hotel de la Paix was created to be a very different hotel in Siem Reap. We were created to stand out in design, service and our commitment to the community. In such a developing country, it is important to participate and play a role."

Siem Reap still having that small-town feel, it's all about creating a web of connections between locals, foreign aid workers on the ground, and travellers.

(If you're going to Angkor Wat soon and are fortunate enough to afford the Hotel de la Paix, why not pack a few old toys and clothes into your bag? The hotel will take it from there, shuttling the items to the relevant parties.)

Last year, MasterCard got in on the act too, donating one bicycle for every Hotel de la Paix room paid for with their credit card between Sept 1 and Dec 31.

The American corporation, via its Asia-wide "social responsibility" platform called Purchase with Purpose, raised funds for 397 bicycles.

The bicycles encourage children to ride to school, something they are often deterred from doing by the long distances and other family responsibilities.

"One only needs to see the joy on the children's faces to understand how much these bikes mean to them," says Elizabeth Duke, MasterCard vice-president for business expansion.

"It is a treat to watch the laughter as they ride around for the first time. The children also realise that the bikes are more than a form of transportation, and represent independence and mobility that they never had before."

The bikes have a multiplier effect, she says.

A boy from the Sangkheum Centre for Children, an orphanage, using a bike sponsored by MasterCard.

"It is the norm for children to share a bicycle, so that not just one, but up to three children in a family will use the bicycle to get to school and run errands."

MasterCard will also sponsor 10 women for the Hotel de la Paix Sewing Training Centre, says Georgette Tan, vice-president of communications.

The 10-month programme teaches women to use a sewing machine, as well as offers education on setting up a business. "The programme will also include basic financial literacy to help the women manage their finances," says Ms Tan.

A visit to charming, rapidly growing Siem Reap reveals that much can be done. And that help, hope and goodwill abound in all quarters.

A poignant case is that of 40-year-old Hom Sophart, who spent about half her life begging on the streets of Siem Reap. Her husband, recently deceased due to cancer related to alcohol poisoning, used to beat her.

She scrounged in dustbins for food for her eight children. Despite her troubles, at one point she decided to adopt - bringing nine under her wing - because she met a child who was even worse off. Sophart cannot talk about her years on the streets without weeping.

She now lives in the compound of the Green Gecko Project, which offers shelter for street children and abused women.

Green Gecko, started by an Australian, is one of the various projects supported by Hotel de la Paix. "My life is so, so much better now," she says via a translator. She can say no more because she is crying again.

Then there is 18-year-old Soy Sareth, recently graduated from the Sewing Training Centre. She now works five days a week, eight hours a day, spending half a day to make one shirt. She earns about US$30.35 a month, she says through an interpreter.

What does she do with the money she earns? "I buy food. I give the rest to my mother. We buy chickens to raise. We had no chickens before."

Because they had never had chickens, they asked their neighbours to help them do the slaughtering. Then her family set about boiling the poultry.

Did she enjoy the meal? "Yes," she says, giggling. "I plucked the feathers myself."
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Temples of chic

SIEM REAP is known mostly for its proximity to Angkor Wat, the world-famous complex of ancient religious buildings. But increasingly, on its bustling and colourful streets, it's gaining recognition for its temples of designer chic.

Showcase for local talent: Rather than a lobby bar area which remained static, the designers and developers of Hotel de la Paix committed a huge central space to developing the local arts scene, with new exhibitions ever six to eight weeks.

These stores are often set up by people who, tiring of their glamorous lives in larger metropolises, have opted for the slower but warm-hearted pace of the Cambodian city.

Elizabeth Kiester, for example, was the New York-based fashion editor for Marie Claire, Mademoiselle and Jane for 15 years. She was also global concept director for Abercrombie & Fitch and global creative designer for LeSportsac.

But last year, she packed her bags to set up a shop called wanderlust in Siem Reap.

"I came to do a volunteer vacation after a gruelling month-long media tour of Asia for the launch of the Stella McCartney for LeSportsac collection," she says. "Siem Reap touched something inside of me that no place ever really had, and I decided to drastically change my life. I also recognised the amount of cool young women who were living in Siem Reap, working at hotels, cafes and NGOs and I thought, 'Where are they buying their clothes?' The idea of wanderlust was born."

The red-windowed shop displays her current cheerful, boppy range of street wear.

The store also sells items designed and made by Cambodians, such as the Nikaya line of jewellery by the handicrafts arm of NGO Journeys Within.

"It was critical to me to have wanderlust be part of the local community. I respect and admire the Khmers enormously, and I am well aware of the tragedies that have befallen this country. And I will do what I can, in whatever small way, to help get this community back up on its feet and smiling and successful again."

Ms Kiester's wanderlust is located on the Alley West near the Old Market, which is lined with trendy retailers, restaurants and boutique hotels.

On this street you'll also find Poetry, a quirky design store run by artist and photographer Loven Ramos and designer Don Protasio. Ramos, a Filipino from Manila, has lived in Siem Reap for five years. "I stayed because of the great energy that you get to create here, rather than be part of the energy that the big cities have."

Cool shops to visit in Siem Reap include Eric Raisina's atelier/studio.

Mr Ramos is just one person among an influx of artists and designers who are behind the galleries and boutiques that have seemingly popped up overnight in Siem Reap.

There is the fashion atelier by Madagascar- born, Paris-trained Eric Raisina (visits by appointment only), and art and photo galleries such as the McDermott and Tiger Lily, as well as a lounge dedicated to local artists at the Hotel de la Paix, the largest space of its kind in the city.

One of the hotel's curators is Sasha Constable, an artist herself and descendant of the famous English Romantic painter.

Ms Kiester says it's only a matter of time before Cambodian art and design gets worldwide recognition.

"When you look at something as beautiful as Angkor Wat, you fully understand the depth of the creative spirit and craftmanship of the Khmers. The art world here is taking off; we have some incredibly fine artists who are showing their works locally and internationally.

Elizabeth Kiester, former fashion editor of Marie Claire and Mademoiselle.

"Trust me, in 10 years, Cambodia will be the hot spot for international design."

btnews@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The Business Times.