Than Sok’s most recent series Kbach Teuk translates from Khmer as “water forms” or “water design codes”, and pays homage to the artist’s former teacher, Khmer traditional painting master, Duong Saree, who called for innovation to a century-or-more-old canon of water forms. Ms.Saree’s goal was to achieve more accurate representations of the character of water and its role and significance in ancient Hindu and Buddhist narrative painting as found in temple painting and book illustration. While traditional representations of water in Cambodian painting have tended to be a secondary and complimentary subject to human and mythical characters’ drama, the artist’s study isolates water as the subject itself. In the artist’s words, “The ancient stories relate to today. For example, we are geographically divided by water, but water has the potential to bring us together.” His miniature watercolors combine both existing canonical forms alongside his creations.
