Finding The Contemporary In The Ancient: Interview with Leang Seckon
By Reaksmey Yean
Portrait of LEANG SECKON. Photo by Anne Berry.
Several blocks away from Phnom Penh’s Royal Palace and the Supreme Court is self-proclaimed “freedom artist” Leang Seckon’s three-story apartment-cum-gallery. Leang has dubbed this space “Mutrak,” derived from the Sanskrit word “mudra,” a symbolic, ritual gesture in Hinduism and Buddhism. Mudra is one of the most significant elements of traditional Buddhist iconography, denoting meaning in images of the Buddha and sometimes indicating a specific moment in the life of the historical Buddha. For Leang, whose practice spans performance, painting, sculpture, installation, and text, artworks are mudra—gestures in which meanings are communicated. Focusing on themes of reconciliation and transcendence in Cambodian cultural and sociopolitical history, Leang often incorporates autobiographical perspectives that nonetheless speak to a wider national collective memory.
