Visual Arts Library
The Flight from Phnom Penh (History of My Family Series, No. 1)
Artist: Svay Ken
Date:
1975
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 60 x 80 cm
Event: Cambodian Killing Fields
Motif:
Families
Events
History of My Family Series Svay Ken's works comprise a series of 14 paintings depicting the experiences of his family during Pol Pot times in various scenes and episodes. Initially, the family is seen fleeing Phnom Penh while Lon Nol's (a Cambodian general with Western allegiances) soldiers are led away to their deaths, and another picture depicts a political meeting. A later picture from the series shows the planes of the Vietnamese soldiers invading in 1979, while peasants run confused below in the rice fields. Yet another scene illustrates the capture of Svay Ken and two of his children by a retreating Khmer Rouge leader. Begging for their lives for two hours, the three were finally released and returned safely to Phnom Penh. The series ends with a picture of the whole family under a big tree, having made it through with nothing but their lives. In all, the series presents a deceptively matter-of-fact vision of the travails of regular citizens under Pol Pot. Most of the figures are painted facing the viewer, or painter, as if posing for a snapshot of their trauma. It is as if they are players in a tragic drama, fully cognizant of the fate that awaits them, yet powerless to change history. No blood or dead bodies are shown (except for in the two Hospital panels), and the series emphasizes "what happened to me" in all its banal detail. The straightforward rendering of events in the painter's characteristic hand gives the viewer a continuity of lived time rather than confronting him/her with a single traumatic scene. The Flight from Phnom Penh This picture shows the population of Phnom Penh fleeing the city on April 18, 1975. The artist's family is depicted in the lower right-hand corner, while Lon Nol's soldiers are led away to be killed. A glass factory on the road to Stung Meanchey is depicted in the background center.
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