Asialink Residency

In 2013, I was granted an Asialink Arts Management Residency with Java Arts in Phnom Penh. Java is a long standing arts organisation in Cambodia, founded by Dana Langlois, who has worked tirelessly to support and ensure the growth of young contemporary Cambodian artists for over 20 years. Through this residency, I was able to build relationships with many Cambodian artists in a short space of time, and collaborate in meaningful ways. Jorng Jam I was the resulting project.

Jorng Jam I brings together 4 young Cambodian artists to reclaim, remember and reinterpret the past through family photographs. By taking a closer look at a ‘personal archive’, each artist has investigated another person’s story built from memory, images and objects. After interviewing friends and relatives, new interpretations around the idea of ‘remembering’ have emerged. With their own toolkits in hand (photography, film, multi-media, sculpture) each artist has then gently and intelligently created new work.

This exhibition is an intimate look at history, memory, family, relationships and artefacts. It makes visible, through research, archiving and the creative process, the rich and often hidden personal historical photographs remaining in Cambodia today.

Jorng Jam I has a basic website. Jorng Jam II has a more extensive website and was the result of further development in Queensland with the assistance of an Arts Queensland Projects grant which enabled the 4 artists to join me in South East Queensland and create a second exhibition with 7 Cambodian-Australian families.

Artists: Neak Sophal, Neang Kavich, Kim Hak and Kong Vollak.
Creative Producer: Pip Kelly, resident Asialink artist with JavaArts 2013/2014.

Please note: Artworks by Kim Hak, Neak Sophal and Kong Vollak below.

I made a short film about Chov Theanly and his paintings during my first research trip to Phnom Penh. The Jorng Jam I exhibition was the result of the second trip in January 2013.