In the first solo exhibition ever hosted by National Museum of Cambodia, Leang Seckon intimately relates to major Khmer artworks that had been stolen and exiled. Reclaimed history lives in full through powerful, tender and daring art.
In the last two years, major expressions of the ancient Khmer art have found their way back to their original land, from which they had been ruthlessly pried away. Ministers, museum officials and workers would not hide tears of joy when they opened the crates shipped from New York. People attended in masses - and still do the "new" displays at Phnom Penh Museum. This is a high point in the battle to get back looted Khmer art, an effort initiated by late Princess Norodom Buppha Devi when she served as Cambodia's Minister of Culture in the 1990s.
Beyond the popular emotion and well-deserved pride, there was an open question that Leang Seckon answers to in this groundbreaking exhibition: how does it impact the artistic expression from Cambodia? What is the profound significance and impact of these restituted statues upon modern creativity?
For many years in the last century, within this same precinct, professors and students of Ecole des Arts Cambodgiens, the ancestor of modern Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA), worked on these same deities, trying to reproduce the art of the past. It was an important phase (see some of their drawings here) but now, with Golden Earth, we reach another level: the ancient forms, symbols, messages set in stone find a new life in a modern, innovative artistic expression.
In Khmer, the name of this major event is សុវណ្ណភូមិ, suvannaphum, "the golden land", the mythical land that Indian seafarers sought after eastbound...and some of them found in Cambodia. Seckon himself has explored the influence of Indian art on Khmer statuary during a trip to India in 2023. In his own words, however, the uniqueness of Cambodian art starts from this land: "The Khmer people have settled on the ancient sea floor shaped like a kettle, where the Mekong River brings freshwater into the Tonle Sap Lake every year. I see this as a natural (churning of the ocean of milk) enclosure that has brought forth the rich and fertile land of gold and the glorious Angkor civilization."
Wars and calamities have followed, and Seckon himself, a 9-year old boy in the civil war, remembers that "the rice sprouts flourished in the fields, resembling grains of gold that nurtured our lives"...Then, considering the stability brought by the Royal Government since 1993, he reflects: "The golden land that I have felt under my feet is my homeland, with the legacy and souls of my ancestors, imbued with grandeur and influence. Even though many Khmer artefacts have been lost to other countries, they are still drawn back to this golden land, allowing those treasures to return home. Villages, rice fields, rivers, lakes, rolling hills, forests, islands, and sea coasts - the wealth above and below ground, in water - are all constituents of the golden land of the Khmer, continuously providing life through generations."
A masterpiece set in the center of the exhibition remarkably expresses this message: entitled "Guru Playing with the Dragon", it is a daring composition combining several materials, showing the ancient wisdom playfully interacting with the naga, the feminine symbol of vitality.
Left, Leang Seckon's artwork, left, the Naga balustrade head, 12 or 13th century, restituted from James Clark collection in June 2024 (photos by Andy Brouwer)
Golden Earth exhibition by Leang Seckon, National Museum of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, from 12 January to 11 March 2025.
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