Back with some updates from my life. There is noting better than a warm, sleepy Saturday morning without super-urgent deadlines for articles, to stop for a second and ponder and reflect on the amazing ride I have been on since the beginning of the year. Basically, a moment of quiet to park the horse and smell the roses. I feel this is somewhat necessary to have a clearer picture of my narrative, because of course it’s a story, but we humans need to make sense of things, and it’s fun, and my heart longs for it! I feel that when I’m talking with friends I tend to focus on the problems, maybe because I have identify them as the alley to let it all out. But my public writing, whether for these occasional rants or even in my articles, is really the place where I feel compelled to look at beauty, while not shying away from complexity. I feel it’s my wiser self talking, and I’m happy to get raw and vulnerable. Well, most of the times!
Here we go with a new article from my Cambodia reportage; it’s so great to see all the fruits from my research coming out little by little and share all this beauty – this time through the web platform Culture360 which is all about creating trans-continental connections.
And I’m super grateful to have met art manager and Kon Len Khnhom founder Met Moeng during my trip to Phnom Penh. Coming from an art system where people don’t have to do things in the arts out of necessity, but more for individualistic reasons, it’s very heartening to see someone who daily embodies the word “service”. Through founding her own art space Kon Len Khnhom Meta really stretched herself beyond her limits, proving that it’s possible to do it if you are willing to let go of control and you are guided by sheer passion.
Coming into contact with her passion and determination was a real blast, and keeps on inspiring me!
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Little by little parts of my Cambodia research/reportage are coming out in the press: here is a piece on the Phnom Penh-based supergroup Stiev Selapak which has just been published on the Singapore-based art magazine Art Republik. Can’t wait to have the physical copy in my hands!
Here is the link to the article
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CoBo has published my review of the Teng Collection at Art Stage 2018. I was very happy to write about the first ever showcase of this outstanding collection, and compelled to learn and reflect on the ethos who is driving the collectors.
This piece actually came out last week but I didn’t post it immediately on the blog because in these past few days I have been busy running around Phnom Penh to collect interviews for my current reportage on Cambodian contemporary art. But here you go, you can read it at the link below.
Here is the link to the review
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What a nice evening at Kon Len Khnhom, the contemporary art space run in Phnom Penh, Cambodia by art manager Meta Moeng! It was great to finally see the space in person after hearing so much about it; this is a traditional Khmer house tucked in a small alley right in the city center, where they held residences, events and do projects with students.
Yesterday night I held a talk talking about my experience researching emerging art scenes, from Indonesia to Singapore, and I discussed with the audience about the features of the Cambodian contemporary art scene and the local art market. The atmosphere was so nice and cozy and elicited reflections; really my jam! Below some pictures from the night.
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This Saturday 10th February 2018 I’m going to have a talk at the art space in Kon Len Khnhom in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
For this art talk, I’ll be sharing about my own experience and methodology in researching the emerging art scenes. Meanwhile, I will also present my findings about the Cambodian art scene so far and ask feedback from the audience to analyse together these different aspect of the art scene.
Please drop by if you are in town!
Here is the link to the fb event
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CoBo Social has just published my interview with Cambodian photographer Kim Hak as the first of a three-part series on Cambodian photographers. In this piece I talk with Kim Hak about the special role photography holds in Cambodia for the collective memory.
Here is the link to the interview
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Culture is a gift to share. Driven by this ethos Yanyun Chen and Jeremy Fernando founded in Singapore the publishing house Delere Press, which marries art and literature. I have interviewed both of them for Culture 360, the webmagazine of the Asia-Europe Foundation.
Here is the link to the article
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CoBo Social has just published an interview with one of my favorite Singaporean artists, Gerald Leow. We did the interview this past June, at the time he exhibited his latest series “I am Time Grown Old To Destroy the World” at Chan+Hori gallery in Singapore.
Here is the link to the interview
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We kick off the new year with the publication of an interview I did some time ago with ceramic artist Vipoo Srivilasa for CoBo Social. His work explores the similarities between the cultures of his native Thailand and his adoptive home, Australia. Vipoo’s art is playful and profound– as well as being highly collectible.
Here is the link to the interview
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I love the end of the year so much. Looking back and taking stock of what worked and what didn’t, because acknowledging that even what apparently didn’t worked is the seed for something even bigger to happen. And also, recognizing that nothing is ever wasted, and everything will converge eventually, because it’s all you, all one person is one universe following his own personal trail of crumbs.
In the past few months I haven’t posted on the blog my regular rants/reflections on my journey through life. This is because I realized that instead of being focused on the present and what was at hand, I was rehearsing the “narrative of my life” a little too often. Too much of looking back and planning ahead, instead of sitting down, spot the priorities and get down to them. Which resulted a dispersive mindset and lazy habits. And now that is the right time to reflect, look back and appreciate, it just feels so much better. A few lessons have unfolded. And while of course everything is unfolding all the time, I feel that right now I can see a motif appearing, whereas in the past few months it was more the phase where everything was colliding before taking a recognizable form.
Enough with vagueness! Let’s get down to the specifics; one thing I learned this is that when you ask your friends for feedback in a particular area of your life they know you well for, they will always tell you that “in the past you were so much better at this.” Of course you know that this is not true. There were movements where you showed up with your higher self in that sector. One particularly focused training session, a period where you were really pushing with work, another week where you realized a set of very good comic book pages. Growth is never even. You’ll have moments where you are quietly learning in some areas and it doesn’t show, and moments where it finally come up. It’s a gift to have friends to keep you in check, but most importantly you have to regularly practice, day in day out.
On the edge of 2017 I can see how all the expressions of my being are starting to come together, and hopefully in 2018 they will find a way to coexist harmoniously as an even flow. Ok, let’s be more specific. I guess I’ll start by looking at the year through the lens of my different practices.
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Art Republik Issue 17 is just out. You will find there my article on collectorship in Cambodia, where I have interviewed curator Reaksmey Yean, dancer and collector Sophiline Cheam Shapiro and artist Sophal Neak, discussing the concept on building an art collection in a country where the art infrastructure is still absent.
Here is the link to the pdf version of the piece
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