Rebuild introduces new works by three alums from Sa Sa Art Projects’ education program: Leng Kimsreang, Kong Dara, and Soung Pheakdey. Through paintings, sculptures, and installations, the three artists highlight the simple yet complex cycles of life and human creation, including psychological health and urban development; the fluidity of life, love, and gender; and human, ecology, and Dhamar.

The exhibition title is taken from Leng Kimsreang’s work Rebuild which features sculptures and sculptural installations made primarily from shattered tempered glass that she collected from various construction sites in Phnom Penh. Kimsreang is interested in the type and function of tempered glass because it is used as a weather barrier and transparent layer to expose the interior of a structure. However, no matter how strong the glass is, it will shatter into many small pieces when it reaches a certain pressure level. For the artist, this is no different from mental health; it can only withstand to a certain degree. The artist puts back together the rubble sculpting them into various forms, such as balls, cubes, an arch, and a ground for new growth, while creating conversations with other materials, such as nails, steel bars, a tire, and textbooks. By doing so, the artist tries to rebuild from what has been broken into a new life again, where strength and fragility go hand in hand. By reassembling these tiny pieces of glass, the artist captures the psychology of Phnom Penh’s rapid development and frequent change while contemplating a process of mental healing.

Non-binary work by Kong Dara comprises eight drawings made of pen and colored pencil and a sculptural installation made of unfired clay. The fine, delicate drawings depict blue threads twisting, wrapping around something resembling maps. In the middle of the pictures are light yellow forms, which, when we take a closer look, there seem to be some organic forms moving, swimming in them. Using images of tadpoles and organic forms as symbols of growth, change, and flow, these drawings map the artist’s personal life experiences as he explores and evolves while traversing through places where he meets new people and friends. For the artist, by making these drawings, he wants to reflect on the growth of life, struggles, love, relationships, social development, and the LGBT+ communities. On the other hand, the clay sculptures of the installation show more vividly the shape of tadpoles moving fluidly and collectively, forming a kind of movement of life. This unfired clay of the work points to the instability, fragility, and changeability of soil and life.

Monk and artist Soung Pheakdey, who studies the Dharma of Buddhism, presents six sculptures entitled Khandha in the form of the human body and internal organs. These sculptures are made of steel skeletons, enveloped with mats, and sewn together with seams made of orange monk’s robes. These organs, including the stomach, lungs, heart, and liver, all play a vital role in supporting the body and are closely related to the natural environment around us; for example, the stomach needs food we eat, the lungs need the air we breathe, and so on. The enlarged scale of these organic sculptures makes us even more confronted with their presence.

The artist has opened some parts of these sculptures, allowing us to see the rusty interior skeleton and its cavities. Together with these sculptures, the artist also adds a dried tree branch. Through this work, we see fragments of the human body and nature decaying, which the artist wants to warn us of the imbalance of the ecology and the impermanence of life that humans are part of.

The artists in Rebuild exhibition talk about the cycle of life, nature, and what humans create, as well as the problems they bring with them: the often-changing urban identity, the resilience and fragility of mental health, the process of building life experiences, and the imbalance and instability of life. Through all these works, the artists make us question what kind of images we want to rebuild, for our psyche, way of life, living environment, and ecosystem.