This series by Than Sok forms part of the artist’s recent study into a particular form of Buddhist painting, known as kbach teuk (in English, “water forms”). Where these water patterns typically serve as complimentary backdrops to anthropomorphic narratives in Cambodian temple murals, Than Sok isolates them as the primary subject of his paintings in where we can engage deeply with water in both material and cultural form.
Than Sok’s attention to the tradition of kbach teuk has been attributed to various aspects of his personal life: his time as a novice monk in a Theravada Buddhist pagoda in his home province of Takeo; the prominence of water in Phnom Penh (where he currently lives and works) and its situation on the convergence of the Mekong and Tonlé Sap rivers; and the various roles that water has played in the natural and spiritual history of Cambodia.
A notable influence came from the teachings of his former teacher and traditional painting master, Duong Saree, at Reyum Art School in Phnom Penh. In what she describes as an approach of “critical mimicry”, curator Erin Gleeson recounts Saree’s commitment to kbach principles of the mimicry of nature (proportion, symmetry, beauty, etc.) whilst simultaneously endorsing a sense of curiosity about water “as a methodology to spur imagination and innovation of new kbach teuk.”
Expanding on the canon of kbach teuk, Than’s paintings explodes its steady line work across the surface of his canvases. The subject becomes an exclusive focus on the meditative rhythms of water in different forms—waves, ripples, or puddles—and its interaction with various animals or plants. Each painting becomes a study of the interdependence of various life forms on water, demonstrating the potential for visual traditions to find new forms in our contemporary condition.
