Kânh Chhrôôl (Gluta Usitata), Melembu, and Khlông (Dipterocarpus Tuberculatus)

Sopheap Pich works primarily with natural materials—bamboo, rattan, burlap, beeswax, and earth pigments—and materials of the developing world such as discarded metal gathered from around Cambodia. He uses these to make sculptures and installations inspired by bodily organs, vegetal forms, and abstract geometric structures. Pich’s childhood experiences during the Khmer Rouge genocide of Cambodian people in the late 1970s had a lasting impact on his work, informing its themes of time, memory, nature, and the body. Through his exploration of organic shapes and utilizing a slow, handmade process, the artist considers themes of identity and displacement, reflecting his own journey as a refugee and immigrant. For the High Line, Pich presents Kânh Chhrôôl (Gluta Usitata), Melembu, and Khlông (Dipterocarpus Tuberculatus) , three copper and steel sculptures inspired by seedpods of the hardwood trees that stand in the garden of the National Museum of Cambodia and the artist’s garden in Phnom Penh. On windy afternoons, seeds circle down from the giant tree canopies like falling helicopters, their movement also suggesting a minimal rendition of a landing bird. The seeds’ wings allow them to fly far away from their mother tree to eventually take root. Now rare in the wild, as the trees are cut down by poachers for their valuable timber, the seed pods suggest the attention we must give to nature and all it touches, from natural and man-made disasters to human migration and displacement caused by transformations in society and the environment.