Salt Water Deluge details, 2021. H 260 x W 330 x D 80cm. Materials:
Cambodian Silk, water collected from the Tucoerah River, salt, rattan, metal.
Salt Water Deluge (Tucoerah River), 2021, is a work that centres around healing and preservation of culture following the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge. The art of silk weaving, a matrilineally handed down tradition, was one of many art forms targeted and came close to being erased by the Khmer Rouge perpetrators. This iteration of Salt Water Deluge was produced in collaboration with the artists' sister Solina Sok and uses salt, water collected from the Tucoerah River (Georges River) and silk fabrics sourced from Cambodian artisans. The water was collected with permission from Darug Elders.
Silk fabrics are submerged in a saline solution, a process similar to a method the artists’ parents use to pickle vegetables. Harnessing the preserving and curing properties found in salt and water, the work acknowledges how trauma embeds itself within objects and survivors and looks towards remedial actions and processes of healing.
Salt Water Deluge (Tucoerah River), 2021, is a work that centres around healing and preservation of culture following the brutal regime of the Khmer Rouge. The art of silk weaving, a matrilineally handed down tradition, was one of many art forms targeted and came close to being erased by the Khmer Rouge perpetrators. This iteration of Salt Water Deluge was produced in collaboration with the artists' sister Solina Sok and uses salt, water collected from the Tucoerah River (Georges River) and silk fabrics sourced from Cambodian artisans. The water was collected with permission from Darug Elders.
Silk fabrics are submerged in a saline solution, a process similar to a method the artists’ parents use to pickle vegetables. Harnessing the preserving and curing properties found in salt and water, the work acknowledges how trauma embeds itself within objects and survivors and looks towards remedial actions and processes of healing.
Linda Sok
@lendasock
Linda Sok is a Cambodian-Australian artist currently based in Boston, focused on investigating the culturally and personally significant period, the Khmer Rouge Regime, which forced her family to flee Cambodia. Her practice navigates the complexities of the trauma embedded in the Cambodian diaspora and aims to shift its legacy from one focused on genocide to one of healing.
With careful considerations for cultural objects, rituals, traditions and their materiality, her practice often manifests in sculptural installations. By accessing fragments of the past, she attempts to recontextualise lost traditions and culture to allow living descendants to process the traumatic history experienced by older generations.
Linda has exhibited in institutions such as Artspace, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Firstdraft Gallery, and SEVENTH Gallery. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from UNSW Art & Design with First Class Honours and the University Medal in Fine Arts. In 2021, she was a finalist in the Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize, Footscray Art Prize, and will be exhibiting her work as part of Cementa in 2022. Linda is currently an artist in residence at the Boston Center for Contemporary Art, and will be undertaking a residency with Textile Art Center in New York later this year.
@lendasock
Linda Sok is a Cambodian-Australian artist currently based in Boston, focused on investigating the culturally and personally significant period, the Khmer Rouge Regime, which forced her family to flee Cambodia. Her practice navigates the complexities of the trauma embedded in the Cambodian diaspora and aims to shift its legacy from one focused on genocide to one of healing.
With careful considerations for cultural objects, rituals, traditions and their materiality, her practice often manifests in sculptural installations. By accessing fragments of the past, she attempts to recontextualise lost traditions and culture to allow living descendants to process the traumatic history experienced by older generations.
Linda has exhibited in institutions such as Artspace, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Firstdraft Gallery, and SEVENTH Gallery. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from UNSW Art & Design with First Class Honours and the University Medal in Fine Arts. In 2021, she was a finalist in the Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize, Footscray Art Prize, and will be exhibiting her work as part of Cementa in 2022. Linda is currently an artist in residence at the Boston Center for Contemporary Art, and will be undertaking a residency with Textile Art Center in New York later this year.
