Kraanh Norneal
by Eng Rithchandaneth, Mok Sombo, Sao Sreymao, Sok Chanrado and Tan Vatey
Opening: Sunday, May 28, 2017, 6-8pm
Exhibition: May 29 – June 18, 2017, Wed-Sat 10am-6pm
Location: Sa Sa Art Projects new space, #47 St 350 (near St 95)
Sa Sa Art Projects is expanding… We are moving to a new space – bigger, better, more flexible, and more accessible – and we are also extending our activities with an increasing focus on arts education. Encouraged by our success over the past seven years at the White Building, we are moving to a new location at #47 on Street 350 in central Phnom Penh, to fulfil our growing vision. At the new space, we have an office, accommodation for artists-in-residence, separate studio, and best of all a large open space which serves as a gallery for exhibitions, as well as for workshops, classes, and other events.
We are launching our new space with Kraanh Norneal exhibition which presents contemporary artworks by young artists and graduates from Sa Sa Art Projects, marking our commitment at the new space to work and engage more with art graduates and students. We want to see the new space as a place for art graduates and students from various schools and universities to learn, exchange, and share their growing practices through classes, workshops, projects and exhibitions, by interacting with Cambodian as well as regional and international leading artists, scholars and specialists.
In Kraanh Norneal, Eng Rithchandaneth, Mok Sombo, Sao Sreymao, Sok Chanrado and Tan Vatey present new works developed during their Contemporary Art Class that ran through 2016. Consisting of video, sculpture, installation and digital prints, the exhibiting artists together explore interrelated socio-political structures and anxieties of transforming Phnom Penh and Cambodia: privatisation of public spaces and resources, development politics, labour migration, public health, as well as resilience and survival strategies from micro-voices.
Contemporary Art Class is a new discursive learning program at Sa Sa Art Projects that extends its experimental pedagogy. Designed for Cambodian art students and art graduates, the first edition of 8-month course in 2016 brought together six participants including SSAP senior students (from previous classes and residency programs) as well as other art students and graduates from Phnom Penh and Battambang. Facilitated by Sa Sa Art Projects co-founder and artist Khvay Samnang and with guest speakers, the participants discussed and learned about different aspects of art, history, philosophy and other disciplines to build critical knowledge in developing their induvial, emerging practices, while creating a new body of work.
Kraanh Norneal is part of Sensing the Capital project which considers Phnom Penh as well as its human and cultural capital through urban research and artistic propositions that foreground human sensibility and consciousness and the city as a living and active agent. Through multiple exhibitions and events that take place at various Phnom Penh’s public, communal and private spaces, the project aims to engage with different groups of urban residents to sense the critical state of the city and its persistent resilience. Sensing the Capital is co-organized by Sa Sa Art Projects and the Vann Molyvann Project, and is supported by Khmer Architecture Tours, Space for Architecture Cambodia and World Monument Funds.
About the artists:
Mok Sombo (b. 1995, Phnom Penh) studies at Sa Sa Art Projects, and music at Music Art School. He also teaches at the White Building's AZIZA school and actively participates in and organises community campaigns and events. He participated in a performance workshop with choreographer Yon Davy and light artist Eugene Kogan, and performed at the resulting event Paths: Experimental Performances (2015) at the White Building. He was an artist-in-residence with Sa Sa Art Projects’ Pisaot residency program in 2015. His group exhibitions include Forest And River Are Life (2016) at Phnom Penh’s Freedom Park, and Rainbow Life (2015) at the Mansion.
Tan Vatey (b. 1992, Phnom Penh) studies at Sa Sa Art Projects. She has taught art to children and volunteered as an art teacher and designer at several NGOs in Phnom Penh. She initiated P-NiH Art+Design, a project that raises fund to support Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital through sales of uniquely designed products. Vatey was the 3rd runner up of the Art on AIDS competition of the 11th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, in 2013. She has participated and facilitated several live painting events in Phnom Penh. Her group exhibitions include the 2016 inaugural exhibition at Constable Gallery at Large, Siem Reap.
Eng Rithchandaneth (b. 1993, Phnom Penh) is a member of White Building Collective, a group of young artists who make short films and publish online photo stories titled Humans of Phnom Penh. An active member of the White Building community, Daneth teaches at the AZIZA school and regularly engages in organising community campaigns and events. Her group exhibitions include Bonn Phum (2014) at the White Building; The White Building and The City (2013) at The Carol Shen Gallery, New York City and Cambodian Youth Art Festival's Snit Snaal (2012) at Sa Sa Art Projects. Daneth studies photography, film, and mixed media at Sa Sa Art Projects. She holds a Bachelor degree in Design from SETEC Institute.
A resident of the White Building, Sok Chanrado (b. Phnom Penh, 1994) studies mixed media and video at Sa Sa Art Projects, and also studies at the Aziza, a community school inside the White Building. His group exhibitions include The White Night (2012), Cambodian Youth Art Festival's Snit Snaal (2012) both at Sa Sa Art Projects, Phnom Penh and The White Building and the City, The Carol Shen Gallery, New York City (2013).Sok Chanrado has had several gallery and museum exhibitions, including at the Queens Museum of Art.
