Lim Sokchanlina’s Wrapped Future Series, “Samdech Hun Sen Street, South End”
As a part of the NIU Art Museum’s
upcoming Southeast Asian Exhibition Suite, “Current Views and Actions:
Photography and Performance Documentation from Phnom Penh” showcases
contemporary work from young Cambodian artists Khvay Samnang and Lim Sokchanlina.
This exhibition will be held from Tuesday, Aug. 28, to Saturday, Nov.
17, in the NIU Art Museum’s Rotunda Gallery. A public reception is
scheduled from 4:30 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 13.
Samnang and Sokchanlina are two of the founding members of the artist
collective, Stiev Selapak (Art Rebels) and are represented by SA SA BASSAC Gallery in Phnom Penh.
Their photography and performance documentation poignantly showcase
the societal challenges and unconventional beauty of contemporary
Cambodia.
Samnang’s Human Nature Series provides an intimate window into the
lives and dwellings of tenants of the Bassac Riverfront Municipal
Apartments, or “The White Building” in Phnom Penh. In Samnang’s
startling portraits, his subjects’ faces are obscured by masks, allowing
the revealing nature of the portraits to unfold through the contents of
the subjects’ living spaces.
In his untitled performance series, Samnang documented the repetitive
action of pouring sand over his head in various natural and urbanized
landscapes. The significance of his performance art lies in addressing
the growing urban developments encroaching around Cambodia’s lake
systems, and highlights the devastating changes to the natural and
cultural landscape in some of Cambodia’s poorest communities. Often
Samnang would wade into heavily polluted waters, risking his physical
safety to complete this daring, socially-conscious performance series.
Khvay Samnang’s Human Nature Series
Sokchanlina’s Wrapped Future series depicts evidence of the rapidly
advancing urban development of Phnom Penh; his photographs document the
seemingly endless expanses of construction walls cluttering the city
streets.
Many of the construction projects behind the barriers Sokchanlina
photographs have laid waste to some of the city’s most revered
architectural icons; others have displaced countless city residents.
While Sokchanlina’s images are mysterious and starkly beautiful, his
walls elicit feelings of loss and frustration associated with these
artificial markers of cultural progress.
In Sokchanlina’s performance art piece titled The Rock, the “White
Building” makes another appearance in this metaphorical depiction of
social struggle. In his piece, Sokchanlina is straining to hold a heavy
slab of concrete above his head as he desperately tries to avoid
collapsing under the weight and plummeting down a pipe leading into the
building.
This performance addresses the precarious position of the community
as people attempt to shoulder the heavy burdens of rapid urban
development, wide-spread eviction and poverty. This piece conveys
Sokchanlina’s sober lament: “I think my city is growing up faster than
my people.”
“Current Views and Actions: Photography and Performance Documentation from Phnom Penh” is offered in conjunction with the Cambodia Studies Conference, planned from Thursday, Sept. 13, through Sunday, Sept. 16, at NIU.
Located on the west-end first floor of Altgeld Hall, the galleries
are open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday,
noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and by appointment for group tours.
Exhibitions and lectures are free; donations are appreciated.
Pay parking is available in the visitor’s lot on Carroll Avenue and
at metered spots in front of Altgeld Hall. Free parking is available
Saturdays and during receptions and visiting artist lectures in the lot
northeast of Gilbert and College Drives.
The exhibition is sponsored in part by the Illinois Arts Council, a
state agency; the Friends of the NIU Art Museum; and the Dean’s Circle
of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, NIU Foundation.
Call (815) 753-1936 for more information.
No comments:
Post a Comment