Cambodia
Sayon Syprasoeuth
The Artist
Syprasoeuth is a mixed-media installation artist living and working in Garden Grove, California. He was raised in Thai refugee camps. In 1979 his family was sponsored by a Lutheran church in Iowa to come live in the United States.
He enjoys learning and put himself through college by working as a cashier, courier, illustrator, and graphic designer. Syprasoeuth graduated from California State University Long Beach in 2003 and Claremont Graduate University in 2007.
His works have been shown in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; China; Berlin; Los Angeles; and throughout the United States.
The Elephant
Syprasoeuth’s vision for the elephant is to show Cambodia’s vibrant and rich culture through symbols of the country—royalty, the world-famous Angkor Wat, and the Aspara dancers. “The three images are inseparable,” he says. "They include intricate and detailed patterns.”
He adds, “I would like the elephant to look organic, with natural colors and vibrancy—adding details of floral patterns to connect the drawing to Cambodia’s heritage in colors, patterns, and symbols.”
Aragna Ker
The Artist
A native of Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Aragna Ker was born in 1974. He immigrated to Southern California in 1981, at the age of six. After graduating high school in Los Angeles, Ker relocated to attend San Francisco Art Institute. He graduated with a B.F.A. in Painting in 1999. In 2004, he received his M.F.A. in Sculpture at Claremont Graduate University. Essential experiences serve as a springboard for Ker’s methodology. His playful works fuse cultural symbols and myth to explore the vast range of hybrid identities. His drawings and sculptures utilize the potency of motive to curiously attack simplistic materials in order to exploit them beyond their ordinary function. The United States Embassy in Cambodia, the Hammer Museum, the Pacific Asian Art Museum, Happy Lion Gallery, and Sabina Lee Gallery are just some of the institutions that have exhibited his work. Ker is currently employed as an art instructor at First Street Gallery Art Center in Claremont, providing artistic instruction to adults with disabilities.
The Elephant
Angkor Wat, as shown on the elephant painting, is a religious temple built by King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century. Angkor Wat was completely abandoned in the 16th century and was rediscovered by Henri Mouhot, a French explorer, in the mid-19th century. Upon his observation, Mouhot noted: “One of these temples—a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo—might take an honorable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged.”
The Asian elephant’s great strength and ability to work under human instruction allowed it to play a vital role in the construction of Angkor Wat. This temple symbolizes a great height of human potential. Asian elephants symbolize a creature’s adaptability in order to aid human endeavors. Angkor Wat and Asian elephants have parallel symbolism because both are giant in structure and highly intellectualized. Most of all, both have found their existence inevitably fragile. Through conservation and preservation, perhaps these wonders will both be able to withstand the test of time.
Ker was inspired by the challenges that these two symbols possess and wanted to create a symbiotic relationship between them. He chose to depict Angkor Wat on the Asian elephant to serve as protective costume. In Mouhot’s notes, he describes Angkor Wat as grand as any architecture he had ever seen in the world. But did he ever note which creature helped to erect this magnificent monument?