University of Michigan Museum of Art: “Angkor Complex”

A visitor to the University of Michigan Museum of Art (not me!)

“Angkor Complex: Cultural Heritage and Post-Genocide Memory in Cambodia” is a current exhibit at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. In a recent visit to the museum, we enjoyed this very well-thought-out selection of art works and historic information. The exhibit deals with the raw memories of many survivors of a horrifying era in Cambodian history. Specifically: “Between 1975-1979, when the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia, about a quarter of the country’s population died of infectious diseases, weapon wounds, and malnutrition.” (UMMA Website)

Works of art in the exhibit include historic sculptures from the famous temples of Angkor Wat, built during the empire that lasted from the ninth to the fifteenth century; artifacts from the French colonial era, such as postcards and photos; and many works by survivors of the genocidal era of Pol Pot in the twentieth century. As always in this museum, the documentation is fascinating, and contributes to one’s understanding of the meaning and origin of the art works.

“Full Circle, Unbounded Arc,” 2015.
These clay pots were intentionally broken and repaired by Cambodian artist Amy Lee Sanford (b. 1972)
They evoke the work that is done in archaeological reconstructions, and the process of loss.

“Seated Buddha-Abhaya Mudra,” 2012, by Sopheap Pich (born 1971).

This sculpture made from bamboo, rattan, wire, and plywood recalls traditional stone sculptures of the Buddha. The museum documentation explains:

“Sopheap Pich's decision to make the sculpture primarily from bamboo and rattan pays homage to the Khmer fish-trap tradition, which he experienced as a child, when he helped his father make traps to catch fish. Thus, he seems to be asking whether the new Buddhism being practiced in Cambodia today is a snare, or if a venerable religion is being systematically dismantled, leaving only its armature.”

 

French Colonialism, 1863-1953

A postcard from the Colonial Exposition of 1922 in Marseilles, showing the exposition buildings that echo the architecture of ancient Cambodia. I enjoyed seeing a large number of historic postcards included at the museum. (source)

I learned a lot about French colonialism in viewing the exhibit; in particular:

“When Cambodia became a French protectorate in the second half of the nineteenth century, Angkor Wat loomed large in the colonial imagination, and France began to reposition Angkor Wat as its own cultural patrimony. Architectural fragments and sculptures from the temple were transferred to French collections, and facsimiles of its buildings were erected in Marseilles and Paris.”

 

Appreciating a Painting from the Exhibit

“Dead and Reborn Again,” 2016

Leang Seckon, Cambodian artist, born in 1974 is the creator of this mixed-media work titled “Dead and Reborn Again.” The explanation on the label describes the story behind this creation: 

“Dead and Reborn Again was inspired by the repatriation in 2016 of the head of a seventh-century sculpture of the Hindu deity from the Musée Guimet in Paris to the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, where it was reunited with its original body. In the upper middle section, winged beings bring Harihara's head to crown his decapitated body to the left. The body is situated in a field of skulls, an obvious reference to the Khmer Rouge's notorious Killing Fields, where countless people were slaughtered. On the right, Harihara is whole again, celebrated by jubilant dancers, butterflies, and animals. This evocation of the violence done to the bodies of both sculpted deities and humans in Cambodia is also a call for the continued restoration and regeneration required if the country is to recover from the destruction wrought during colonialism, civil war, and the Khmer Rouge.”

Detail of “Dead and Reborn Again.” I was especially interested in this as I have been to the Musée Guimet
many times and I suspect that I have seen this scupture. However, this exhibit made me much 
more aware of the colonial history that brought many Asian artworks to Paris museums.

I looked up the return of the stone sculpture from Paris to Cambodia, and learned that it had been sold in 1889 to the French collector Emile Guimet, who founded the museum. Here is a photo of it (source)

I’ve shown only a small number of the works from this exhibit, trying to convey the complex history that was presented. The Cambodian genocide was particularly destructive to the country’s artists, and the emergence of the new generation presented here is clearly a triumph of art over hideous totalitarian monstrosity. The stories of the artists contain a number of brutal actions that they experienced, As children they lived through the splitting up of their families and the uprooting of whole sectors of the population. They witnessed the destruction of vast numbers of human beings as well as artistic, educational, and cultural properties.

Elsewhere in the Museum

As we often visit the museum, on this visit we did not look at many other exhibits. However, we looked in some of the drawers where there are tiny objects that are stored in darkness to protect them — exposed to light only when someone is actually viewing them. Here are three to which I felt a connection:

A tiny etching of a dancer by Edgar Degas, 1891.

Viewers of the solar eclipse of April 17, 1912, in Paris. Photograph by Eugène Atget.

A small etching by the American artist Whistler.

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