Seasons of Cambodia: Svay Sareth's Artist Residency in New York

By Kai Nien

 

Following the bloodshed of the Cambodian Civil War and Pol Pot’s genocidal regime, Svay Sareth (Battambang, Cambodia, 1972) spent much of his childhood and early adulthood at Site Two Refugee Camp on the Thai-Cambodian border. It was not until his country’s re-unification under the monarchy in 1993 that he was able to leave the camp, ultimately moving to Siem Reap. Cambodia’s tumultuous history has long served as a source of inspiration for Svay’s artistic practice. His works, which include sculpture, photography, installation and performance have long reflected on processes of survival but more recently, Svay's practice has explored the politics of power under current conditions. I met up with Svay during his recent three-month artist residency at the LMCC Art Center on New York's Governors Island, where he created new pieces as part of the Seasons of Cambodia initiative.

Svay Sareth, Mon Boulet, 2011
Metal, 200 cm sphere. Courtesy of the artist

As a mode of introducing Svay to those who may be unfamiliar with his practice, Mon Boulet (2011), perhaps his most well-known performance piece, saw the artist attaching himself to a large 80 kilo metal sphere – attempting to pull it by foot for nine days from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. Along the 250 kilometre stretch, Svay invited spectators to write or draw on the structure and echoing refugee camp life, by night, he slept on blue tarpaulin. The heavy sphere, which carried the weight of his own and his entire nation’s complicated pasts, saw Svay stopping at day six - failing to reach his final destination. Like the deceitful King Sisyphus, who had to roll a huge boulder up a hill only to watch it roll back down again and continuously repeat his actions as a mode of punishment, through failure, Mon Boulet examines human existence and the absurdity of victory.

Svay Sareth, GET OUT!!!, 2013
Courtesy of the artist

Svay Sareth, GET OUT!!!, 2013
Courtesy of the artist

Svay’s residency at LMCC, across Lower Manhattan’s financial centre introduced exciting new works. A critique of the US, the performance piece GET OUT!!! (2013), featured the artist holding a bong and wearing a gas mask as well as a traditional Cambodian straw hat as he rode a toy bull. He circled and head-butted Arturo Di Modica’s iconic Charging Bull (1989) and in an attempt to irritate the Wall Street bronze sculpture even further, he played wailing musical sounds. Not entirely unsurprisingly, the piece was cut short by the New York police. 

Svay Sareth, GET OUT!!!, 2013
Courtesy of the artist

The implication is that like drug addicts themselves, Wall Street is addicted to the power of money and financial rewards. Given that the US economy profiteers from the global arms trade, Svay told me “war is a business.” The performance also attempts to question human desires and  makes fun of “American freedom.” Svay added: “If this was a free country, the police would not drive us away and the studio would not install CCTV either.”

Svay Sareth, Castle Camouflage, 2013

Far from thinking like he was in a land of freedom and opportunity, Svay felt as though he was once again in a refugee camp. The surveillance cameras installed in the artist studios, the city's gun shops, Wall Street’s addiction to financial rewards including those unethically made from war, and the cannons - symbols of historical military actions – on Governors Island, reminded Svay of Cambodian refugee camp life. As a means of escaping being monitored by the surveillance camera on his studio’s ceiling, Svay created Castle Camouflage (2013), a humble hut resembling refugee camp accommodation.

Svay Sareth, Shade and Light, 2013

Svay Sareth, Shade and Light, 2013
Courtesy of the artist

Just outside the hut’s door, Shade and Light (2013), an installation comprising a yellowish tree-like structure with light bulbs, stood in the sand. The piece functions as a re-interpretation of a childhood memory whereby a reach tree - a national symbol of Cambodia - grew in the soil. In the refugee camp, the tree and dirt patch in Svay’s memory were the only space where, as a child, he could write and paint - a school where he could imagine true freedom.

Svay Sareth, Inside of view, 2013
Courtesy of the artist

Through a window on one side of the hut, Manhattan’s mighty financial district was visible - the new Freedom Tower emerging from what was once destroyed by acts of terror. Two photographs on the studio walls juxtapose the developed US with the underdeveloped Cambodia. Inside of view (2013) depicting the Freedom Tower and the financial centre functions on one hand as a symbol of resilience and hope, yet on the other hand as a symbol of unethical financial gain given America’s leading role in the global arms trade. 

Svay Sareth, My back of view, 2013
Courtesy of the artist

The other photograph, My back of view (2013) shows the Shade and Light installation. Although also alluding to war and tragedy, the message of hope and freedom seems more genuine here. This may very well be because in the Cambodian reach tree, Svay sees real freedom - a space to re-imagine his own life and that of his fellow Cambodians. 

Despite the enormous gulf between the American and Cambodian economies, it just goes to show that war and terror can happen anywhere. As Svay’s activist practice reflects, it is essential to strive for true freedom, not just financial and military might. Echoing Michel Foucault’s views on the surveillance state, progress does not necessarily require the curtailment of personal freedoms and this is why Svay’s new works for the Seasons of Cambodia initiative serve both as critique of US power but also as a message of hope.

 

Svay Sareth in the studio