My commitment to the art community
The commitment of my art work is more than a personal identity research, the impact upon the art students and professional artists and among the Cambodian Diasporas overseas is essential in their own reflection of identity. The “khmerness” issues from the Khmer Rouges lead to genocides. Under the years of pro-communism government afterward, censorship was at it fullest. Now a day, Cambodian people in the country self censor themselves either out of fear of the future or out of habit of silencing their opinions. To me it is more than promoting a Cambodian art scene and empowering a culture, it is about free expression where ever you are. My purpose from the very beginning was to create a binding relationship between artists of different dimensions, connecting them to exhibiting spaces and vice versa, and to show the public the most creative minds working in the visual arts nowadays in Cambodia.
For me Cambodian art should be considered as contemporary art and not simply as a nationalistic endeavour or as representing ideas of exoticism. Through my website and future curatorial efforts, I seek to exhibit the most prominent Cambodian artists in the country and outside. I also hope to create a sense of art community amongst the visual artists.
Present project : ART IS LONG, LIFE IS SHORT IN CAMBODIA
I have been invited by the US embassy to do a workshop in May 2011 at Phare Selpak art school in Battambang, Cambodia.
Phare Selpak is a wonderful school helping street kids to find a passion in the arts. They are most known for the circus school which had toured in Europe. They also have classical dance and music training as well as visual art school. Unfortunately the art school does not have much support nor help. Yet many of the new emerging young artists today come from that school.
To read more about this project