Heng Ravuth’s exhibition Innermost II, currently on show at Java Cafe & Gallery, is an exploration of the self and emotion. A continuation of his 2011 exhibition Innermost, Ravuth continues to use himself as the subject of his work, but he says he has added greater detail and more layers to his most recent exhibition.
Presented in mosaic form, each image is made up of small jagged square replicas of the whole image. From a distance it is near impossible to see, but look closer and you can make out the hundreds of miniature images within the painting. The canvases depict big featureless figures in various poses – Ravuth’s use of body language stands out in this exhibition. In the making of Innermost II, Ravuth used a combination of oil paint and photography.
Ravuth’s exhibition seeks to normalise nudity. Though often used in art, nudity continues to be a sensitive and uncomfortable topic in Cambodia. Ravuth says nudity is associated with shame and indignity in Cambodia, and he hopes to contribute to normalising these intimate parts of the body that can cause people to feel awkward and embarrassed. “I want to show everybody that nudity is us, and that everyone is actually nude,” he says.
In his work, Ravuth hopes to capture something a camera cannot. Instead of capturing a fleeting moment, he wants to create an atmosphere, within which feelings are encapsulated. Ravuth graduated from Phnom Penh’s Royal University of Fine Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in painting, and has chosen to make self-portraiture one of his biggest focuses. His fascination with the portrait style of painting is closely associated with self-expression.
Painting mostly in hues of green, blue, purple and white, Ravuth intentionally distorts the faces and bodies that appear in his work, instead choosing to focus on conveying a feeling through his featureless figures, or attempting to give them an inner personality.
But this feeling or inner character is to be determined by the viewer. Ravuth believes there is an often unnecessary emphasis put on finding the meaning behind an artwork. Rather than telling the viewer what is happening in the picture, or explaining the personal meaning for them, he believes “mystery and curiosity can be more powerful,” and he prefers to let these traits take over: “I want to make people find the meaning behind the painting themselves; I don’t want to change people’s thinking.”
For Ravuth, another benefit of not telling the audience the meaning behind his work is getting to watch people’s reactions as they try to decipher what lies before them.
“I’m more interested in capturing emotion than having a message in my work. I’m more excited to see people’s emotion when they see my work.”
Innermost II is showing at Java Café & Gallery until Sunday April 26.