Sweet Sorrow
Svay Sareth
〈Wings of Throne – Wing〉, 2020.
Cotton, kapok and nylon, Wing 1(90x50x8cm), Wing 3(65x50x7cm), Wing 4(65x55x6cm), Wing 7(110x90x8cm), Wing 10(80x75x9cm), Wing 15(110x80x10cm)
〈Beyond Sunflower〉, 2018.
single-channel video, duration 2 min 55 sec, Edition of 3.
Svay Sareth was born in the late 1960s during the Cambodian Civil War. He spent his teenage years in the refugee camp adjacent to the border between Thailand and Cambodia, where he started creating art. Throughout sculpture, installation, and performance, he addresses the violence of war, power, resistance, and survival based on his experience of growing up in political turmoil with the use of objects from war, including metal, military uniforms, and camouflage.
Wings of Throne is an ongoing series from 2020, presenting the political unrest of Cambodia in the late 20th century. On the other hand, the wings also imply a metaphor for the dictator-generals. They are also known as the “Dirty Dozen,” who exerted the political power of the Khmer Rouge regime and stood for the bloody hands of betrayal and corruption. The Khmer Rouge carried out a radical policy to achieve a communist society through agricultural reform in the 1970s, causing many people to be victims of deportation, labor, torture, famine, and disease. Eventually, this regime caused the tragedy known as the Killing Fields, which refers to around 20,000 mass grave sites at the hands of genocide. The artist intends to reflect on history and reality by dealing with his experiences of going through political oppression.
Beyond Sunflower (2018) is a single-channel video of Svay performance piece at Angkor City. In the performance video, viewers are confronted with the protagonist donned in a sunflower mask, playing the Tro (traditional Khmer stringed instrument) in a seemingly forcible fashion and producing an unmelodic highpitch screeching sound. The Sunflower and its treatment is suggested as a metaphorical representation of an unwelcomed foreign entanglement in Cambodia. It captured the attention of visitors due to its display of sheer tenacity and endurance by the artist. Beyond Sunflower is however not durational, but its urgency as a social-political piece highlights Cambodia’s voice of resistance against modern colonialism – expressions of power which are materialized by trade flows.
Jeon Nahwan
〈 The Q (A Group of Korean Queer youth)〉, 2018~2019.
〈Queer Theory〉, 2019.
SungHong Min
〈Skin_Layer〉, 2022.
〈Exercise for Sensitivity〉, 2020.
〈Adaptation attitude_Camouflage net〉, 2020~2021.
Tran Luong
〈Lập Lòe〉, 2012.
Svay Sareth
〈Wings of Throne – Wing〉, 2020.
〈Beyond Sunflower〉, 2018.
Maelee Lee
〈Time of earths Strata〉, 2015~ongoing.