ORION Public Lecture 

This lecture focuses on the art and life of Khin You (1947-2009). When the Khmer Rouge regime came to power in 1975, You was forced to live in exile in France and subsequently in Africa where he and his wife found employment in Sudan, Ivory Coast, and Qatar between 1975-1999.  In 2000, he returned to Cambodia and lived there until his death in 2009. He left a collection of paintings, drawings and sculptures. My talk argues that unlike Khmer artists from his generation whose works address nationalist themes, You occupied a unique position in that his works address issues beyond his national identity. His exilic experiences introduced him to a wide range of cultural and artistic ideas, which made him a cosmopolitan Khmer artist. He discovered his abstract style of painting while living in Sudan. He invented his own visual language to express his feeling of exile such as pad locks, caged birds, and barriers. In addition, his works also critique gender inequality between men and women in Cambodia and Africa due to lack of access education.

Boreth Ly is a Cambodian-born art historian who was educated in France and the United States. She is currently an associate professor of Southeast Asian art history and Chair of the History of Art and Visual Culture Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is the first Cambodian American to have received a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in art history in the US.