Since the invention of photography, many painters have used itas the basis for their compositions. But few have used it as a means of documenting what they do. That’s what Vong Sopheak has done, modestly and soberly, as he makes a photographic record in his shop of the different steps of his paintings and sketches. This chronological accumulation of souvenirs of a work in progress is something like the notebook one would make to record things that will forever be hidden once the work is completed.This in some way makes obsolete the scientific analyses that old paintings are often put through in an effort to discover repaints and restorations, qualms, compunctions or remorse, and sketches abandoned, blown away by a new inspiration.
By documenting the work progressively as it develops, the young painter assigns to photography a simple memory function, but rounds it out with views of his workshop when light illuminates the space, with still lifes of details of his tools, canvas, brushes, tubes, pencils, in fact, anything that he never puts into a painting.
It is but an accompaniment, albeit delicate, sensitive, an original approach that puts photography in the service of another creation, another modality of the representation.
FESTIVAL
Photo Phnom Penh 2013
November 30th – December 31st, 2013
http://www.institutfrancais-cambodge.com
