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THE NEW SIEM REAPERS
WHY ARE MORE AND MORE ARTISTS MOVING TO CAMBODIA’S SECOND CITY? TO BREAK FREE FROM THE CHAINS OF MONOTONY NUMBING THEIR FLAIR, THEY SAY. CHARLIE LANCASTER ASKS THREE CREATIVE TYPES ABOUT THEIR ADOPTED HOME. PHOTOGRAPHY BY VINH DAO
“SIEM REAP HAS THE SPICE OF COSMOPOLITAN LIFE BUT THE CASUALNESS OF the beach, without the sand. It offers artists the space, opportunity and means to flex their artistic muscle,” says Loven Ramos, an avant-garde artist and graphic designer, who moved to Cambodia in 2005. “The vibe is very much ‘now’. ”
Elizabeth Kiester, a fashion design whiz who’s CV includes gigs at Marie Claire magazine, Abercrombie & Fitch and LeSportsac is founder of a boutique called Wanderlust that opened in Siem Reap last year. “This town is alive and vibrant, so it attracts people willing to explore their curiosity and people willing to experiment,” she says. Fellow couturier and curator of Hotel de la Paix’s artspace The Arts Lounge (Sivutha Boulevard, tel +855 (0)92 490375, www.hoteldelapaixangkor.com) Don Protasio says, “The creative energy as depicted in the ancient ruins is being reawakened. The city welcomes initiative.”
As fate would have it, the New Yorker and two friends from the Central Philippine University, armed with only an artistic licence to inspire and be inspired, found themselves mixing forces in Siem Reap, a town that became for them both palette and canvas.
Affable, lively and passionate, the dynamic of the trio is contagious. Their conversations are eloquent, intimate and glossed with humour.
“We spend a lot of our time ‘dumpster diving’ for jewels,” Elizabeth says of foraging the city and its countryside for inspiration and material. “We can talk for hours about a piece of fabric or a button we found,” she adds as Don and Loven return her look with a knowing smile.
Convinced of the need to convert Cambodian fashion and art into a global experience, they all produce work that feels natural in any context. “Fashion and art have to translate,” says Elizabeth of her colourful fashion line. “Designs have to look as good in Siem Reap as they would in San Francisco.” Don encourages artists to utilise their talent to present pieces that will travel well across the world: “Cambodian-grown art should hang comfortably in galleries in the most progressive of cities.”
Thriving off each other’s energy, there is a mutual adoration and respect for each other’s work between these three that is candid in its sincerity. When asked of their signature style, they immediately and simultaneously talk of the other.
“Don has the element of surprise,” Elizabeth says, describing what she calls his ‘what if I mix this or move that’ attitude that saw him hang 10 tonnes of ice from the Arts Lounge ceiling – an installation that captured the attention of all visitors.
“Elizabeth is a minimalist with a ‘maximalist’ voice,” Loven remarks of Elizabeth’s ability to morph the complicated into the simple. It is a style favoured by the fashion designer’s regular customers and it has inspired mimicked renditions from neighbouring tailors.
“And Loven’s work is guided by a sense of freedom,” Don says
of his counterpart’s beadwork and embroidery that fuses art with fashion to create wearable art.
“But of course we’re also competitors,” Don continues, prompting a round of laughs from the other two. While Loven’s work is exhibited at The One Gallery (tel +855 (0)15 378088, www.. theonehotelangkor.com), Don and Loven together own Poetry (tel +855 (0)15 378088), a shop just down from Elizabeth’s Wanderlust (tel +855 (0)12 529924). The store sells clothes, art and poetry books. Anywhere else in the world they may be rivals but not in Siem Reap. The narrow alleyway that houses their businesses is the stage from which they collaborate and cement their collective craving to introduce something new to the town.
“We held a suitcase sale recently,” enthuses Elizabeth. Similar to a car boot sale, the idea was to have a bit of fun on the strip.
“We thought we’d be the only ones with a suitcase,” confides Loven. “But loads of people came and the alleyway was temporarily converted into a street party as people traded goods, bartered, danced and enjoyed themselves.”
“Life is what you make it,” Don adds, “and we want to change peoples’ perspective of art and fashion in Siem Reap; it isn’t all 2D depictions of Angkor Wat, it is charming, edgy, young. But importantly, it is well designed and professionally managed.”
Their sell-out lines and exhibitions are indicative of their success in changing the public’s perceptions. Loven says, “It is not just foreigners who are attracted to our work. Increasingly we’re seeing Cambodians attending Don’s exhibitions, wearing Elizabeth’s clothes and buying my art. For me, it’s more important for Cambodians to react to my art, to connect to it rather than like it.”
“I want the Cambodians to appreciate where we as citizens of this country can go, and recognise that possibilities are endless,” adds Elizabeth. “That we are part of a bigger world.”
“If Cambodians buy more art from domestic artists, then I feel I have helped them realise the art being produced in this country is on par with other countries,” says Don. “It is important emerging Cambodian artists are exposed and supported by the domestic market.”
Long a barometer of the fashion and artistic direction of the country, Siem Reap is once again at the cusp of change. “It’s not just about our products or the global language they speak,” says Elizabeth. “We want our customers to value the experience of Wanderlust, Poetry and The Arts Lounge. We want them to remember they bought it and they experienced it in Siem Reap.”
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