Snapshots of mundane moments make art revolution in Cambodia
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By VIJAY JOSHI
.c The Associated Press
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) - Svay Ken tells his story in simple oil paintings
that follow no rules.
Hailed as the most creative body of modern art in Cambodia, his latest work is
a set of 128 paintings, each one a snapshot of a prosaic moment in his life or
his wife's life.
The resulting wall-to-wall picture book is not only a personal chronicle
spanning six decades, but also a document of Cambodia's tumultuous history
including atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge that few other artists have
drawn.
What makes Svay Ken even more remarkable is that he is an ex-waiter who never
went to school who started painting only eight years ago at age 60.
Why did he begin a new career?
``I wanted money,'' he replies.
At the time, he had put in 30 years working as a waiter and handyman at the
swank Hotel le Royal, and was close to retirement with a wife and five children
to support.
``I could never save anything,'' he says. ``At 60 my energy was falling. So the
question popped in my head: What should I do to support my family?''
After weeks of deliberation, he decided to paint.
Svay Ken is one of a handful of modern artists in Cambodia, where tradition has
confined art to sculpture and murals in temples.
Phnom Penh's Street No. 178 is lined with art shops - all selling nearly
identical drawings of Angkor Wat temples and apsaras, the celestial dancers
carved on temple walls. Some artists also do wedding portraits or pictures of
village belles, mainly as decorative pieces for the home.
``The notion of an artist being a creative person is a Western notion,'' says
Ingrid Muan, an American who teaches at the Royal University of Fine Arts.
``Art is merchandise for Cambodian people.''
She says Svay Ken's fame and success could encourage creative art in Cambodia,
and spur the government into promoting painters.
State support at present is nonexistent: Cambodia does not have a national art
gallery, and artists do not receive state-sponsored scholarships or funding and
are not provided with public places in which to exhibit their works.
Svay Ken had only dlrs 2.50 with which to buy supplies when he started
painting. His first pictures were of hotel guests reading newspapers or
lounging in the lobby.
``I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't even know how to mix colors,'' he
recalls in an interview at his dilapidated studio - a converted, dusty garage
with two unsteady plastic stools, a grimy table and a sagging bed.
He showed his works to the foreigners at the hotel. Some didn't like the
childlike portraits with their disproportionate limbs and comic book feel. But
others bought the paintings, charmed by the clearly defined lines, bright
colors and details.
Svay Ken's big break came in 1994 when a Canadian guest gave him dlrs 200 to
buy a new easel, brushes and paints, and helped him set up an exhibition.
Recognition followed. His work was chosen as Cambodia's entry for Japan's
Fukuoka Art Trienniale in 1999.
A tragic turning point came in February 2000 when his wife, Tith Yun, died.
From his overwhelming grief was born a desire to tell Tith Yun's story, and
his. He wrote a moving biography of his wife. At the invitation of a local art
gallery, Reyum, Svay Ken painted pictures to accompany the text - 128 in all,
made in a matter of months and titled ``Painted Stories.''
``He is an artisan of life. Others paint what they think they should paint. He
paints what he sees,'' says Ly Daravuth, a co-director of Reyum, a nonprofit
gallery that promotes Cambodian art.
The series begins with Tith Yun's life as a young girl and converges into Svay
Ken's life as a waiter. He is shown in self portraits wearing a black bow tie,
shining guests' shoes or carrying the luggage of Air France crew members.
More than 60 paintings from the series were sold, mostly to foreigners.
With his paintings, Svay Ken turns the humdrum daily life of an ordinary family
into an engrossing essay on Cambodian history and society. It is as if he has
plucked frames from a photographic memory and reproduced them on canvas.
``We woke at dawn to make and steam sticky rice cakes together,'' reads the
caption of one painting.
``We went to buy plates for our new household at a store south of the New
Market,'' reads another.
The snapshots continue in a chronological order, tracking Cambodia as it
descended into misery after the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975. The depiction
of the Khmer Rouge years provides a close-up of the humiliation, pain and grief
that Svay Ken and millions of other Cambodians suffered under their rule.
Svay Ken and his family were forced to labor in a commune. One picture shows
him carrying human excrement. Another is of sick people lying side by side in a
hospital hut.
By painting the Khmer Rouge, who were responsible for the deaths of at least
1.7 million Cambodians during their 1975-79 rule, Svay Ken has broken new
ground.
Few people in Cambodia talk publicly about that horrific past. It is rarely
discussed at homes and schools. Popular literature - except for expatriate
Cambodian writings - has been silent. So has the theater and other arts.
But Ly Daravuth of the Reyum gallery and others say that Cambodia needs a
national catharsis if it wants to move on, and they say that Svay Ken's
paintings could provide that.
``The political impact of his work is almost revolutionary,'' Ly Daravuth says.
``The society has to discuss the history, debate history.''
AP-NY-03-07-02 1921EST
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