Hul Kanha (b.1999)
Kanha was born in a rural area in Siem Reap Province and is currently a resident artist at Open Studio Cambodia in Siem Reap city. Kanha feels art is essential to her soul as a mode of self-expression and is deeply connected to her daily artistic practice. Her multidisciplinary artwork mainly incorporates photography and performance art with painting, paper cutting, and stencil techniques. Kanha is the recipient of the Treeline Urban Resort Artist Grant (2020), and has been an invited speaker and art instructor by the United Nations Women i4i Conference (2020) and NOMADIX Arts Festival (2020). |
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021 "Hope on the Horizon" Open Studio Cambodia, AIR Gallery, Factory Phnom Penh powered by FT Gallery, Phnom Penh, Cambodia 2020 "Tomorrow is a New Day," Open Studio Cambodia, AIR Gallery, Factory Phnom Penh powered by FT Gallery, Phnom Penh, Cambodia Winner, Treeline Urban Resort Artist Grant "Invisible Voices/One Hundred Hands" Treeline Urban Resort Artist Grant awardee showcase, Treeline Urban Resort, Siem Reap, Cambodia “Contemporary Cambodia,” Artxchange Gallery, Seattle, USA Group Exhibition of Cambodian Contemporary Art, Galerie Lee, Paris, France “Women of the World,” Sra’ Art Gallery, Phnom Penh, Cambodia "Mirage in Sight" juried photo exhibition featured artist, Mirage Contemporary, Siem Reap, Cambodia NOMADIX Arts Festival, invited teaching artist, Siem Reap, Cambodia 2019 i4i United Nations Women Conference, Factory Phnom Penh Invited teaching artist PRESS |
"One Hundred Hands"
Kanha Hul became inspired by a well-known Cambodian proverb, which reads “women have 100 hands.” Inspired by this proverb and funded by the grant she won from Treeline Urban Resort Artist Grant program, she created a new series of work entitled, “One Hundred Hands” with her community in her home village in Kralanh District, Siem Reap. This series was exhibited at Treeline Urban Resort from November 21, 2020 - February 28, 2021.
Kanha was reminded of her mother's words, "as women, we must engage in endless multi-tasking in our roles as wives, mothers, housekeepers, cleaners, cooks, and our various other roles.” In 2020, Kanha held a workshop with women in her home village during which she became inspired by their stories. She offered new sarongs (traditional wrap skirts) to the women in her village in exchange for their old ones. Once the exchange was made, she asked them to collectively sew the used ones into a large single installation piece which she then used as a prop for a photo shoot at several locations throughout the village including the lush green rice fields. Several women participated and she also staged several self portraits. Sometimes the sarong installation became a sort of cocoon she wrapped herself in, other times it appeared as a burdensome load a woman was pulling across a vast, empty landscape.
Her series pays homage to the stories of the women in her village, translated into visual images. Bringing attention to the proverb "women have 100 hands" and the voices of women in her village, she attempts to shed light on the tension between traditional and contemporary female roles in her society.
Her photographs combine mixed media elements to printed photographs, including hand-cut paper, stencil, paint, and ink. In the first iteration of the exhibition at Treeline Urban Resort, she presents six interdisciplinary framed works and the sarong piece sewn by the villagers as an installation.
Kanha was reminded of her mother's words, "as women, we must engage in endless multi-tasking in our roles as wives, mothers, housekeepers, cleaners, cooks, and our various other roles.” In 2020, Kanha held a workshop with women in her home village during which she became inspired by their stories. She offered new sarongs (traditional wrap skirts) to the women in her village in exchange for their old ones. Once the exchange was made, she asked them to collectively sew the used ones into a large single installation piece which she then used as a prop for a photo shoot at several locations throughout the village including the lush green rice fields. Several women participated and she also staged several self portraits. Sometimes the sarong installation became a sort of cocoon she wrapped herself in, other times it appeared as a burdensome load a woman was pulling across a vast, empty landscape.
Her series pays homage to the stories of the women in her village, translated into visual images. Bringing attention to the proverb "women have 100 hands" and the voices of women in her village, she attempts to shed light on the tension between traditional and contemporary female roles in her society.
Her photographs combine mixed media elements to printed photographs, including hand-cut paper, stencil, paint, and ink. In the first iteration of the exhibition at Treeline Urban Resort, she presents six interdisciplinary framed works and the sarong piece sewn by the villagers as an installation.
"Like a Dream" (2020) Kanha Hul, photo, acrylic, 31 x 21 inches (80 x 53 cm)
"Repair" (2020) Kanha Hul, photo, graphite, acrylic, 31 x 21 inches (80 x 53 cm)
"Compensate" (2020) Kanha Hul, photo, acrylic, 16 x 10 inches (40 x 26.50 cm) SOLD
"Lullaby" (2020) Kanha Hul, photo, acrylic, 16 x 10.5 inches (40 x 26.5 cm) SOLD
"Discarded" (2020) Kanha Hul, photo, ink, SOLD
"Intuition" (2020) Kanha Hul, photo, ink, 16 x 10 inches (40 x 26.50 cm)
"Duality" (2020) Kanha Hul, photo, acrylic, ink, 16 x 10.5 inches (40 x 26.5 cm) SOLD
“Mend” (2020)
Kanha Hul
photo, acrylic, graphite
16 x 24 inches (40 x 60 cm)
“Seeking Refuge” (2020)
Kanha Hul
photo, ink, acrylic
16 x 24 inches (40 x 60 cm)
“Resistance” (2020)
Kanha Hul
photo, ink, acrylic
16 x 24 inches (40 x 60 cm)
“Balanced” (2020)
Kanha Hul
photo, acrylic
16 x 9 inches (40 x 23 cm)
“Moving Forward” (2020)
Kanha Hul
photo, acrylic
31 x 21 inches (80 x 54 cm) SOLD
Body Series
Kanha Hul created this series in 2020 in her home village in Kralanh District, rural Siem Reap province. She worked with community members there to create intimate, often abstracted compositions made up of body parts. Her work aims to describe the connection between the physical body and ones hidden nostalgia, trauma, and metaphorical "road map" of life events, represented by ink sprayed stencils on top of printed photographs. The repetitive use of gold in this series is drawn from traditional Cambodian proverb, "Men are like gold, women are like white cloth," meaning men are able to recover from their past missteps and shine themselves off again to their original brilliance, unlike women who carry the stain of their mistakes forever. The artist attempts to reappropriate this notion by repeatedly adding gold to her compositions, sometimes as rings or halos emanating from behind or below figures, sometimes as filling for creases in the soles of feet.
"Camouflage" (2020), Kanha Hul edited, photo, ink 17 x 12 inches (43 x 30 cm)
"Unity" (2020), Kanha Hul, photo, acrylic, 17 x 12 inches (43 x 30 cm)
"Scar Map" (2020) Kanha Hul, photo, ink, 17 x 12 inches (43 x 30 cm)
"Listen" (2020) Kanha Hul, photo, acrylic, 17 x 12 inches (43 x 30 cm) SOLD
"Empathy" (2020), Kanha Hul, photo, acrylic, thread, 17 x 12 inches (43 x 30 cm)
"Earthly" (2020) Kanha Hul, photo, acrylic, 17 x 12 inches (43 x 30 cm)
"Language of my Body" (2020), Kanha Hul, photo, ink, 16,5 x 12 inches (42 x 30 cm)
"Human" (2020), Kanha Hul
photo, acrylic
17 x 12 inches (43 x 30 cm) SOLD
“Understanding” (2020), Kanha Hul, photo, acrylic, thread, 17 x 12 inches (43 x 30 cm)
"Connected to the Earth" (2020) Kanha Hul, photo, acrylic, 17 x 12 inches (43 x 30 cm)
"Afraid to Recognize Myself"
In this early 2020 series, Kanha Hul examines herself, as a young, unmarried, Cambodian woman striking out on her own in pursuit of her artistic. career. Shortly after joining Open Studio Cambodia, Kanha began experimenting with self-portraiture, photography, and developing her unique interdisciplinary artistic aesthetic which combines digital photography, printed, then embellished with paint, thread, ink, stencil, and paper cut techniques. This series touches on themes of feminism, self-determination, critically examining the traditional roles of women and children in her society, with a strong focus on concealing her own face, a metaphor for her own personal journey to realizing her own potential as an artist and independent woman.
"100 Reasons" (2020) Kanha Hul, photo, hand-cut, acrylic, 21 x 31 inches (53 x 79 cm)
"Holding" (2020), Kanha Hul, photo, acrylic, 11.5 x 16.5 inches (29 x 42 cm)
"Afraid to Recognize Myself" (2019), Kanha Hul, photo, ink, acrylic - 12 x 17 inches (30 x 43 cm ) - SOLD
"Breaking the Rules" (2020), Kanha Hul, photo, ink, thread, 17 x 12 inches (43 x 30 cm) SOLD
"Roadmap to my Village" (2020) Kanha Hul, photo, ink, 16,5 x 12 inches (42 x 30 cm)
"Forbidden" (2020), Kanha Hul, photo, acrylic, 31.5 x 21 inches (80 x 53 cm)
"Only Me" (2020), Kanha Hul, photo, acrylic, 11.5 x 16.5 inches (29 x 42 cm)
"Hiding" (2019), Kanha Hul, photo, ink, acrylic - SOLD
"Remind Me" (2020), Kanha Hul, photo, ink, acrylic - 12 x 17 inches (30 x 43 cm)
"Looking Forward" (2020), Kanha Hul, photo, acrylic, 11.5 x 16.5 inches (29 x 42 cm)