In the bleakness of the three years, eight months and 20 days of Khmer Rouge rule, during which the spectre of death loomed ever large, one group of artisans in particular found themselves on the wrong side of history.Cambodia’s sign-painters, straddling two spheres especially reviled by Pol Pot’s troops – commerce and the arts – were ideal ideological prey for the regime. Murdered almost to a man (sign-painting is historically a male endeavour), there remained few sign-painters to pass on their craft to younger generations. This fact, coupled with the rising popularity of digital design and the economic attractions of mass production, means that the country’s tradition of hand-painted business signage is at risk of fading away altogether.
“They are part of a Cambodian tradition that’s in decline, and isn’t practised by anywhere near as many people as it used to be,” says Sam Roberts, author of a new book on the Kingdom’s painted signs which will be published this month. “This is something that would otherwise be lost, a piece of Cambodian tradition that could disappear. By making a record of the craft, however small a record this is, it means that when these signs are obliterated, if anyone wanted to bring them back they have a record of them.”
Undoubtedly a rich resource for future generations, Roberts’ book, Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie, is much more besides. By tracing the sufferance and survival of sign-painting, the book explores shifts in Cambodian aesthetics and culture, proving a means to reflection on the country’s past, present and future.
The story starts in the halcyon days of the 1960s, Cambodia’s golden age. Sign-painting was then an accepted and thriving profession, the most effective form of communication in a country with minimal infrastructure and a low literacy rate in many areas. The craft was employed to advertise a plethora of goods and services, from dog-meat sellers to public health pronunciations.
With the coming of the Khmer Rouge, signs and their painters fell out of favour, along with all other perceived symbols of capitalism and liberal aesthetics. This explains the paucity of extant signs from that period, a loss lamented by aficionados such as Roberts, who laughingly compares the hunt for pre-Pol Pot relics to the quest for the Holy Grail. The profession picked up once more in the 1990s as NGOs and businesses flooded the country, but this resurgence was not to last.
“It’s definitely on the decline right now,” says Roberts, more than a little sadly. “Even the signs in the book, a lot of them aren’t there any more.” While there are practical and economic explanations for the increasing popularity of cheap, mass-produced signage, Roberts notes there may also be deeper socio-cultural trends shaping Cambodia’s urban landscape.
“My theory is that these signs and their demise are indicative of a phase of a country’s development,” he explains. “There’s a perception that digital signs are more modern and perfect, and people value that. I think a culture has to go through that phase of mechanisation and digitisation, and when it emerges from that people begin to appreciate the value of hand-crafted creations.”
Coming from that post-industrialised perspective, Roberts’ appreciation of the hand-crafted aesthetic is apparent throughout the book. Juxtaposing 170 photographs with thoughtful exploration of Cambodia’s art and history, Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie is a continuation of the author’s fascination with ‘ghost signs’, the peeling painted remnants of early 20th century advertising still visible across Europe and North America. Founder of an online archive of such signs, Roberts acknowledges that he is “a sucker for nostalgia”, but he’s adamant that appreciation of a hand-crafted aesthetic is more than just longing for times gone by.
“I don’t want to see a regression to the Middle Ages, but I do think there has to be a balance between a digitised society and reconnecting people with humanity,” he insists. “When you see something handcrafted it mediates a connection between you and the person who created it… And that’s more soulful, more human than everything being mass-produced and mechanical.”
Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie will be available from mid-November and will be followed on December 4 by an exhibition at Cambodian Living Arts, giving Phnom Penhites the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the signs of changing times.
WHO: Sam Roberts and Cambodia’s sign painters
WHAT: Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie
WHERE: http://kratie.ghostsigns.co.uk/buy
WHEN: Mid-November
WHY: See the ghosts of signs past