Catalogue Than Sok "Les Formes de l'Eau"

All cultures have their own versions of kbach – their own forms, also most
commonly derived from nature, that are translated, interpreted, abstracted,
and combined for wide ranging applications. Not only has kbach been
applied in what is now Cambodia for aesthetic purposes related to notions of
beauty and its sensorial potentials, but also, consciously or unconsciously over
time, as part of identity formation, as a constitute of political power, territorial
claim, a gender expression, a medium of spirit communication and prayer,
and much more. Kbach is a language in and of itself and, like all languages, it
is constantly evolving. A core lexicon is shaped over time by ongoing overlap
between creators and users, and while some forms and knowledge are cared
for with continuity and varying inflections, others fall away, and inventions are
added, all shaping our consciousness and potentials of expression.
It is this confluence of a culture’s inheritance, losses, relationships, inventions,
and potential futures that seeded Kbach Teuk nearly two decades ago. After
years serving as a novice monk in a Therevada Buddhist pagoda in his home
province of Takeo, and before studying architecture, Than Sok was a student
at Reyum Art School (2001-2007) in Phnom Penh. He trained in kbach’s
exacting lines, proportional rules, and compositional applications, while also
learning representational painting of both perspectival and flat traditions. Sok
extended his foundational studies towards contemporary art practice in the
first and only Reyum Art School Workshop (2005-2007). Over the years, he
was exposed to and often participant in Reyum’s rich ethnographic research
and exhibitions, and learned with associated and visiting scholars, artists
and curators. This combined, extra-national education in the early 2000s was
unique, especially at a time when the internet remained mostly inaccessible.
Than gained critical insight into notions and practices of cultural tradition and
continuity that defined Reyum’s work, which came to deeply influenced his
own thinking.
One of Than Sok’s instructors at Reyum was master traditional painter, Duong
Saree (born 1957). Like the institution of Reyum where she taught, Ms.
Saree had adopted critical concern around copyist pedagogy introduced
during the French Protectorate (1856-1954) that became synonymous with
and foundational to structuring the first centralized colonial art curriculum,
École des arts Cambodgiens in Phnom Penh (1917). Colonial concern was
that knowledge of practices associated with the Khmer Empire - so desired
for reifying colonial identity and its markets – for example kbach as applied
during the celebrated Angkorian period, would tragically wane without
documentation and replication. While Ms. Saree inherited some of the
continuities advanced through colonial pedagogy, when she taught copyist
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