Reconstructing The Past & The Present, exhibition by Kaeu Sreypeou, Leng Kimsreang, Sao Sreymao and Yim Maline

Jan 215 min read

Reconstructing The Past & The Present presents a group exhibition by 4 Cambodian women artists from different generation included Kaeu Sreypeou, Leng Kimsreang, Sao Sreymao and Yim Maline. Exhibition is taking place at SNA Arts Management.

Reconstructing The Past & The Present, exhibition by Kaeu Sreypeou, Leng Kimsreang, Sao Sreymao and Yim Maline

Through paintings, sculptures and installations 4 women artists highlight the tells family stories, reminder, urban development, importance of nature, the change of physical and psychological landscapes of Cambodian urban and rural communities, environmental and climate change.

Pol Pot regime’s genocidal crimes

Kaeu Sreypeou is the first female artist from Cham community, presents 5 acrylic paintings on canvas, recounting the history of her family told by her mother, a Cambodian-Muslim born and went through Pol Pot regime’s genocidal crimes, a remembering, responding and reflecting on her thoughts as a child born after the Khmer Rouge era on the canvas.

Architectural developments

3 sculptures are on-going series of Rebuild work by Leng Kimsreang made from shattered tempered glass that she collected from various construction sites in Phnom Penh. She observes most of the current architectural developments often use metal and glass as the main building materials and later use decorative lamps. Artist tries to observe old architecture and new architecture rebuilt on the same site, so the artist tries to rebuild from what has been broken into a new life again, where strength and fragility go hand in hand.

Poetic as much as haunting

Reconstructing are 16 collections of new sculptures made of wire, white cement, in addition of photographs taken by Sao Sreymao in northern and southern Cambodia, some of the pictures are hand-painted on the sculptures and these have different shapes and sizes. This is the first time that Sreymao has used new techniques, construction materials and the images transfer techniques by herself.

Poetic as much as haunting, Sreymao constructs images of changing and disappearing communities along the river, mountains, coastal areas are affected by human-made environmental degradation. Drawing on personal memories and observations of these landscapes, the transition from one place to other place and the fragility of the ecosystem turned into fascinating narrative sculptures.

Significance of nature

Yim Maline participated in artist-in-residency in Hokkaido, Japan. While traveling from the tropics to the cold, the atmosphere changed, absorbing the new climate that changes place and time. Day by day, artist is interested in the significance of nature, climate change, loss and trade. Maline spent a few days on Shiraoi mountain exploring new landscapes that she had never seen before. These 11 works are part of The Color of Yesterday series, which are not just landscapes, the artist also included Japanese foods flavors while meditating on after every meal on the floor (new natural resources bring a new dimension). Other 4 soft sculptures hanging on the wall, Maline has developed it in 2023, transforming non-precious or mundane materials – such as recycled fabric, recycled clothes, showing her concerned deeper into the nature of microorganisms.

About the artists

Kaeu Sreypeou (b.1998, Kampong Chhnang Province) lives and works in Kampong Chhnang province and Phnom Penh. She started studying painting in the faculty of Visual Arts at the Royal University of Fine Arts (2018) and graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the Royal University of Fine Arts (2023). She participated in the workshop “Celebrating the 72nd Human Rights Day” with many artists in Cambodia at Phare Ponleu Selpak, Battambang, organized by the United Nations Human Rights in Cambodia (2020). Sreypeou participated in two group exhibitions “Voices” and “Speak Out Sisters” at Meta House (2024). Recently, she completed 30 pages acrylic painting based on a true story from a genocide survivor, prepared by a group of students from NUS.

Leng Kimsreang (b. 1997, Phnom Penh) lives and works in Phnom Penh. She graduated in Interior Design from the Royal University of Fine Arts. She also took Contemporary Art class at Sa Sa Art Projects. She usually works with collage and sculpture and often comments on the realities of society, culture, and the urban psyche. Group exhibitions include Message in Mind, Photo Phnom Penh Festival 2019, Tortim Art Gallery, Phnom Penh; Breath, Sa Sa Art Projects, Phnom Penh (2020); Festival d’Art Sacre de Compiegne, Compiègne, France (2021); Sa Sa Fundraising Auction & Exhibition (2020) & (2022); Rebuild, Sa Sa Art Projects, Phnom Penh (2023); and Modern Architecture: Echoes + Reflections, Raintree Cambodia, Phnom Penh (2024).

Sao Sreymao (b. 1986, Site 2 refugee camp, Thai border) lives and works in Phnom Penh. She graduated from Phare Ponleu Selpak’s School of Visual and Applied Arts, Battambang province (2006) and was a part of Sa Sa Art Projects’-Contemporary Art Class (2016). Her multidisciplinary practice includes painting, photography, digital drawing, sculpture and performance. Her works explore personal expression and memories, as well as the change of physical and psychological landscapes of Cambodian urban and rural communities. She has also collaborated with various writers in visual storytelling and published a number of graphic novels. Sreymao was an artist fellow at Sylt Foundation with a residency in Sylt Germany (2017). She is also a recipient of Dam Dos Grant 2018 of Cambodian Living Arts. Her solo exhibitions include Breathing Thread, Pteas Chas, Phnom Penh (2023); Samput Sor, Silapak Trotchaek Pneik by YK Art House, Phnom Penh (2022); Under the Water, Mirage Contemporary Art Space, Siem Reap (2019); and Under the Water, Sa Sa Art Projects, Phnom Penh (2018). Her most recent group exhibitions and performances include Between the Land and Water a collaboration with Neak Sophal, Ses Slap village, Chnok Tru commune, Kampong Chhnang province; Vertical Art Exhibition: Sa Sa Art Projects, Raintree Cambodia; and All That Surrounds Us: New Art from Cambodia, 16 Albermarle Project Space, Sydney, Australia (2023); Shaking Land and Water, Jendela Visual Art Space, Esplanade, Singapore (2022); and PressureI, F3, Phnom Penh (2021).

Yim Maline (b. 1982, Battambong Province) lives and works in Siem Reap province. She received her BA Fine Art Diplôme National Arts Plastique from École Supérieure des Beaux-arts de Caen, France in 2010, and is a graduate of Phare Ponleu Selpak, where she studied from 1995 to 2003. Maline’s practice is located within the social consciousness of post-war Cambodia and is replete with references to cultural and social symbols that deal with loss and ambiguity. Through her drawings and sculpture-making, she reconstructs memory (both social and personal) as an act of commemoration and enshrinement of the natural environment lost to war and economic policies.

Her solo exhibitions include Decomposition, SA SA BASSAC, Phnom Penh (2016); Having a hole or empty space inside, SA SA BASSAC, Phnom Penh (2015); No Name, SA SA BASSAC, Phnom Penh; Silk Threads, The Insider Gallery, International Hotel, Phnom Penh (2012); and Remember, SA SA BASSAC, Phnom Penh (2011). Group exhibitions include the 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Australia (2024); Vertical Art Exhibition: Sa Sa Art Projects, Raintree Cambodia; and All That Surrounds Us: New Art from Cambodia, 16 Albermarle Project Space, Sydney, Australia (2023).

About SNA Arts Management:

SNA Arts Management is the first Phnom Penh, Cambodia-based agency connecting contemporary Cambodian visual artists with the broader art world. With extensive experience working with galleries, other art spaces, and arts organizations locally and globally, our main aim is to promote Cambodian visual arts and introduce artists to local and international art markets. We provide strategic career management, professional guidance, professional art space/collection/storage and consultancy to visual artists at all stages of their career. We also support and encourage their artistic development.

I have spent my life surrounded by the arts. I grew up within a performing arts family, and married a visual artist. I revere great beauty and creativity. I live to share my passion for the arts with others by showing the work of Cambodian visual artists to people the world over.

Chum Chanveasna (SNA)