Leang Seckon (b.1974) Covering Skirt (Somphut Butbahng)

Leang Seckon (b.1974) Covering Skirt (Somphut Butbahng) 2009 signed and dated Seckon, 09 (lower right) mixed media on canvas 150 x 130 cm (59 x 51 in) Footnotes: Provenance Bonhams Hong Kong, 29 March 2018, lot 27. Acquired from the above by the present owner. Private collection, Singapore. Exhibited and Published Heavy Skirt: Leang Seckon, 31 March to 29 April 2010, Rossi & Rossi, London, illustrated, n.p. [exhibition catalogue). Leang Seckon 覆蓋裙子 混合媒材 畫布 2009年作 簽名：Seckon, 09 (右下） 來源 香港邦瀚斯，2018年3月29日，編號27 現藏家得自上述來源 新加坡私人收藏 展覽及出版 《沈重裙子──Leang Seckon》，2010年3月31至4月29日，Rossi & Rossi，倫敦，插圖，無頁碼［展覽圖錄］ Leang Seckon was born into the deep poverty of the Prey Veng province, Cambodia, and directly experienced the brutal reign of the Khmer Rouge regime. Almost a generation of artists was wiped out during the genocidal years, leaving an undeniable gap and a palpable legacy in Cambodian art, upon which Leang reflects in his creative practice. Leang's perceptions of his native land's socio-political history are communicated through his highly autobiographical works. The present lot draws poignant references to the heaviness of history and his family's difficult circumstances during the civil war of the early 1970s. The somphut or skirt that his mother wore whilst she was pregnant with him was old and quilted with patches, because his family's subsistence-level earnings from the rice farm did not generate enough money for new clothing. The thick fabric suggests the burden of survival in the face of relentless hunger from the start of the U.S. bombing campaign in Cambodia in 1965 until the Vietnamese army overthrew the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. Images including the mythical serpent, old age and suffering are presented in rows of circular motifs like falling bombs. In the process of catharsis, however, flowers and Buddhist iconography emerge, transforming scarred memories into a garden of new life, seemingly to convey that the tumultuous history of modern Cambodia also breed creativity and hope. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing