Advisor

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There comes a time in the life of every feminist critic and writer when, according to the law of sod, she happens across a press release bearing the immortal first line: ‘Vincent Broustet invites us into the passionate world of young Khmer women.’ To review or not to review, she wonders. Don’t be ridiculous. Martha, fetch me my gun.

My pen! I mean my pen! How Freudian, please excuse. Anyway, how kind of Monsieur Broustet to invite us to his exhibition, let us proceed post haste to see what we can see. The passionate world of young Khmer women, otherwise known as Broustet’s solo show Queen For A Night, is only on view in Siem Reap until October 31; what if you want to see it twice?? We should hurry.

Queen For A Night focuses on Khmer women’s “transformation from everyday selves into unabashed beauties for Cambodian weddings and other significant occasions”. Unabashed! Saucy minxes that they are. That may sound like an excuse for us all to ogle women in various stages of undress and picturesque disarray, hair all of a tumble, ballgown slipping cheekily off one ‘unabashed’ shoulder, but undoubtedly the exhibition’s iconographic subtext contains some contrapuntal critique.

Assiduously, your feminist reviewer scans the aforementioned press release for thoughtful comment on the egregious sins of the male gaze, or a meaty gobbet of French philosophy at the very least. “The ritual of preparing for special events takes hours of enthusiastic groundwork, usually beginning with a visit to a favourite hair salon to have tresses elaborately styled and curled.” Tonsorially accurate, no doubt, no doubt, but few of us go to exhibitions to think about curling tongs, it must be said.

Ever investigative, your roving reporter buttonholed Robina Hanley, manager of McDermott Gallery in Siem Reap, to explain further. “You are unable to tell the difference in the girl who works in a factory from the girl who comes straight from the countryside. Neither girl is chic in her everyday life, but when she has a chance to dress for a ceremony or party, she is usually unrecognisable, sometimes full of confidence, sometimes a little embarrassed. Vincent sees this every day in Cambodia and when you examine his paintings you can see tenderness and respect in every brushstroke.”

That brings us to the paintings themselves. Influenced by “Rembrandt, Hugo Pratt and all the great artists in between,” Broustet positions his work firmly in the Impressionist tradition, his paintings redolent of Degas showing fleeting, flirting, fin de siecle ballet dancers. Except with much manlier shoulders, it must be said. Suffused with slabs of toothache-inducing satin, oddly proportioned women hover in a perspectiveless world, largely bereft of distinctive facial features or expression, but probably wishing they were somewhere else. So might you be, dear viewer; so might you be.

In a week when Miley Ray Cyrus has been much on everyone’s minds and even more in our Facebook feeds, whether we like it or not, it’s perspicacious to ask whether the kerfuffle over cultural appropriation and neo-orientalism that resulted from Mi-Cy’s twerkathon has a wider relevance. Broustet, who has lived and worked outside of his native France for much of his life, says that his “sketches and paintings do not engage in exoticism, but instead are transcriptions of moods and atmospheres, the pursuit of what is and remains common to every human, every landscape, every shadow”.

That Broustet voluntarily exonerates himself from the charge of exoticism before anyone has the chance to lay it at his door is interesting. You might even say telling; I would not say that, of course, but you might. Whether Broustet’s paintings themselves present a postcolonial perspective of ‘the East’ – an East of sensuality, latent sexuality and quantifiable stasis – is moot. As Broustet says, he “doesn’t believe in exoticism; what is normal to one person can seem exotic to another. Just because you haven’t experienced something doesn’t make it exotic.”

However, his works inarguably follow in the aesthetic tradition of painters who essentialised non-Western places and people in this tidy way. If you were one of the bajillion VMA viewers who was mild to moderately offended by Miley Ray Cyrus smacking a lady-bear’s ‘juicy butt’ before the 9pm watershed and making Willow Smith cry, you may also be offended by other postcolonial, patriarchal narratives. So, you know, buyer beware.

WHO: Vincent Broustet
WHAT: Queen For A Night art exhibition
WHEN: August 31 – October 31
WHERE: McDermott Gallery, Old Market, Siem Reap
WHY: Is this a trick question?

After three weeks of gallery openings, exhibitions and earnest heart-to-hearts with artists in New York City, Than Sok decided to become a monk. Understandable really: the Big Apple’s art scene can be tiring even in its quieter moments, and for Khmer artists this year’s Season Of Cambodia festival was not one of the quiet times. In the midst of his residency at Governor’s Island, 29-year-old installation artist Than joined Wat Samakiram in Brooklyn for two weeks, shaving his head, donning saffron and leaving the art studio far behind.

At least Than thought he swapped the studio for the spiritual life, but a true artist rarely makes a clean getaway. No sooner had he divested himself of his worldly goods and chattels than well-wishers from Brooklyn’s laity presented Than with alms meant to meet his basic needs once he’d done his two weeks of Wat time. Soft furnishings, soap, toothpaste, deodorant (cleanliness is next to Godliness, after all), clothing, cashmoney and other gifts came into Than’s hands from his newfound congregation.

These offerings make up Than’s third solo exhibition, Promotion, on show at Sa Sa Bassac until October 19. Exploring the dark art of gift-giving, the show draws explicit parallels between Than’s time as a monk in New York and his experiences during Cambodia’s recent national elections, during which period the artist also received gifts, this time from party ‘volunteers’. What, wondered Than, was the intent behind all this apparent goodwill and gifting?

“The gifts from political parties and the gifts from the United States [laypeople] are not different,” explains Sa Sa Bassac Project Manager Chum Chanveasna, speaking on behalf of Than. “Everyone wants to receive something back. The gifts from political parties are to promote those parties and [ask] people to vote for them; the gifts to monks are to promote belief in religion. People offer these gifts to ask for happiness during the present and next life.”

The notion of promotion – of an ideology, of a personal petition, even of oneself – informs Than’s exhibition. The objects from New York and Phnom Penh are arrayed on shelves beside watercolours of their likenesses: the doubling up of object and image is, according to Chum, a nod to the promotion of advertising. “The drawing can be marketing, like a banner or flyer to promote the objects displayed on shelves for sale.” Thus the “gifts” become revealed as a currency of exchange: to give is to receive, and all givers give with one hand and expect to take with the other, Than conjectures.

Promotion follows on from Than’s previous work, much of which is concerned with the rituals and behaviours surrounding belief systems. Working across sculpture, installation, video and performance, the Takeo-born artist is drawn to examine religion and ritual because “religion walks along with events and activities of people, and it shows that people have always been connected with religion,” says Chum.

Connected with religion and ritual they may be, but neither priests nor politicos are above buying preference on occasion. It’s this base side of philanthropy which Promotion explores; after all, you don’t need to join holy orders to know that, for some people at least, to give is to receive..

WHO: Than Sok
WHAT: Promotion exhibition
WHERE: Sa Sa Bassac Gallery, #18 Sothearos Blvd.
WHEN: Until October 19
WHY: “Religion walks along with events and activities of people, and it shows that people have always been connected with religion”