AsiaLIFE

From buffalo boy to international artist, Leang Seckon’s creativity has taken him far. Nora Lindstrom talks to the artist about freedom, success, and future projects.

Recently returned from his first European solo exhibition in London, contemporary artist Leang Seckon is visibly satisfied. With all but three of his artworks from the exhibition entitled Heavy Skirt sold, he has reason to. “Success is good,” he says, adding that seeing foreign art critics and enthusiasts not only admire but also buy his work was particularly encouraging. 

Invited to the UK capital by Asian art specialists Rossi & Rossi, Seckon’s exhibition showcased a series of collages and paintings centred around an installation featuring a skeleton in a military uniform. Like all of his work, each piece is autobiographical, the whole exhibition drawing inspiration from an oft-patched skirt his mother used to wear during his childhood under the restless 1970s. 

Though Seckon admits to feeling some sadness at seeing his artworks go to foreign homes, he says he never quite loses touch with any of them. “When I have activity, the paintings are dancing,” he says.

And activity is certainly something Seckon has. Having grown up in Prey Veng province, he worked as a buffalo boy during his youth, but was always determined to make more of his life. “I didn’t want to be the boy on the farm, I wanted to be the boy [I am] today,” he says. “I wanted real freedom.”

His first attempt to leave home to study in Pursat was unsuccessful. Always an entertainer, his mother was so fond of his singing and storytelling that when he left she would not stop crying. “My mother told my brother to bring me back, she could not live without me,” Seckon says.

The initial failed attempt to move on may have been a blessing in disguise, as Seckon eventually enrolled at the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA) in Phnom Penh in 1992, completing a degree in plastic arts and later another in fine arts with a focus on design. In 2002, the year of his graduation, he held his first solo exhibition at Java Café & Gallery. 

Seckon calls himself a freedom artist, but for him the term means more than creative freedom. “It’s about freedom for life,” he says, comparing freedom to a cloud, able to change its form and go anywhere. 

For someone who values independence, Seckon’s artworks reveal an acute awareness of interconnections. One of his latest pieces links science, the environment, and art, stressing the role of humans, as opposed to gods, in both making and destroying the world. Entitled The God of the Ricefield, it was recently exhibited at a groundbreaking contemporary art exhibition at the National Museum. Made using mixed media on canvas, the piece provides a commentary on development in Cambodia, featuring traditional and religious symbols contrasted with modern symbols and appliances, with an avatar of Angelina Jolie taking centre stage. 

Despite his international success, which in addition to the London exhibition includes participating in the fourth Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial in Japan, the ASEAN New Zero Contemporary Art Exchange in Yangon, as well as a solo exhibition in Phuket, Seckon remains a proudly Cambodian artist. 

“I look at art in the world, I see pictures in books, and I talk with foreign artists, it’s about exchange,” he says. “But I don’t follow them. I start from original art, from Buddha, from real Cambodia.” Many of Seckon’s artworks are made using old photographs, well-known Cambodian symbols, and readily available materials. “I take from life and use for art,” he says. 
It may be the everyday patterns, brands and icons, or perhaps the personal stories that often accompany his works of art, but unlike many other contemporary Cambodian artists, Seckon has managed to make a name for himself not only among foreigners, but among his compatriots too.

“The high people love my art, but the normal people and the people from the countryside they love my art too,” he says. 

For Seckon, art is not just something to hang on the wall. Also keen on performance art, his work at Fukuoka included creating a 90 metre Khmer dragon, a makara. Among a variety of upcoming projects, Seckon hopes to perform the makara, which needs to be worn by over one hundred people, during this year’s water festival. Among the many attractions of the popular national holiday, that will certainly be something to look forward to.