Quite an exhibit, in several of the Asian galleries, including up a staircase to an elevated gallery. An exploration, a winding revelation. Sopheap Pich at the Met until July 7. When the Khmer Rouge was in power, morning glories (above) were sometimes all that were available for food, or at least for filling of the stomach.
I haven't found a photo showing the blush of red at the tips of the rattan, the faint riveting reminder of the Khmer Rouge's stranglehold on Cambodia. No matter. "Budda 2." A sculpture of rattan, wire, and dye.
An excerpt from the artist's statement:
Buddha 2 was born out of a short journey my family took on foot from a Khmer Rouge village to the center of Battambang, the province of my birth. The Buddha was to symbolize a temple called Wat Ta Mim. My family built a hut across the street. I used to go past the temple ground everyday with a buffalo to the rice field several hundred meters away. I would occasionally walk inside the temple hall to see bloodstains on the floor, ceiling, and walls—bloodstains that looked like they had been sprayed with a toy gun. Where there used to be the normal Buddha sculptures, there were just piles of broken things I couldn’t see. . . . I was afraid to look in the dark. [Sophea Pich]Sopheap Pich at the Metropolitan Mueum of Art.
No comments:
Post a Comment