Joseph Stashkevetch - New Drawings

New Drawings

Kampuchea
Schultz Contemporary, Berlin • March 10, ~ April 21, 2007

For information regarding this work contact: Von Lintel Gallery, 212• 242• 0599 or
Galerie Michael Schultz, Tel. +49 (30) 31 99 13 50

Kampuchea

“…A Brahman names Kaundinya, armed with a magical bow, appeared one day off the shore of Funan; a dragon princess paddled out to meet him. Kaundinya shot an arrow into her boat; this action frightened the princess into marrying him. Before the marriage, Kaundinya gave her clothes to wear, in exchange, her father, the dragon-king, enlarged the possessions of his son-in-law by drinking up the water that covered the country. He later built them a capital, and changed the name of the country to Kambuja, which was later bastardized to Kampuchea. This is how it came to be.”

Preh Rup #1 - 60 x 60"

“…the land was flat and fertile. It produced gold, silver, copper, tin, sandalwood, ivory, peacocks, fishmartens, and parakeets of five colors.” Liang Annals, 6th Century, CE
“I heard it said that within the palace are many marvelous sights, but these are so strictly guarded that I had no chance to see them.”

Preh Rup #2 -88 x 60"
click on image for enlargement

“When the king leaves his palace, the procession is headed by the soldiery; then come the flags, the banners and the music. Girls of the palace, three or five hundred in number, gaily dressed are massed together…Then came still more girls, the bodyguard of the palace, holding shields and lances…Ministers, princes, mounted on elephants, were preceded by bearers of scarlet parasols without number…Finally the sovereign appeared, standing erect on an elephant and holding in his hand the sacred sword, this elephant, his tusks sheathed in gold, was accompanied by bearers of twenty white parasols with golden shafts.” Chou Ta-kuan, 1297

Tonle Sap #1 - 60 x 60

“Above all, the [Tonle Sap] is a source of wealth to the whole nation; the fish in it are so incredibly abundant that when the water is high they are actually crushed under the boats.” Henri Mouhot, 1860

Tonle Sap. #2 - 60 x 60

“[Angkor] was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Cambodia, formerly so famous among the great states of Indo-China, that almost the only tradition preserved in the country mentions that empire as having had twenty kings who paid tribute to it, as having kept up an army of five or six million soldiers…”

Puzzle (Bayone #1) - "40 x 40"

“One is filled with profound admiration, and cannot but ask what has become of this powerful race, so civilized, so enlightened, the authors of these gigantic works? One of these temples a rival to the temple of Solomon… It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged.” Mouhot, 1860

The Bayon;
“At the center of the kingdom rises a Golden Tower flanked by more than fifty lesser towers and several hundred stone chambers. On the eastern side is a golden bridge guarded by two lions of gold, one on each side, with eight golden Buddhas spaced along the stone chambers.” Ta-kuan, 1297

Bayon #2 - "60 x 60"

“This Cyclopean bulk of stone, standing like a rock from which the ocean has receded…the state of dilapidation into which some have fallen renders it difficult to be precise as to the total number of [towers]…”Osbert Sitwell, 1932

Angkor #1 - "60 x 60"
- click on image for enlargment

“Standing alone in a country now depopulated and overgrown with forest wherein not even a house of the smallest description can be found constructed of stone, these ruins cannot fail to strike the beholder with the most wonder.”
E.F.J Forrest 1850

“The forest will not let the ruins escape. The branches take on every kind of shape and function; hooks, forks, mortises, nuts, pulleys, stirrups, imposing a living organism that forces the worked stone to accept it’s embrace.”
“The fig tree rules as the master of Angkor today.”
Louis Delaporte 1873

Enfilade (Tuel Sleng Prison) - "60 x 48"

“Bright red blood that covers towns and plains of Cambodia, our motherland
Sublime blood of workers and peasants,
Sublime blood of revolutionary men and women fighters!
The blood, changing into unrelenting hatred…
Free us from tyranny!
Glorious victory with greater significance
Than the age of Angkor Wat!
National Anthem for the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea

“The human imagination quickly reaches it’s limits when it comes to depicting perfect happiness. One the other hand, it’s resources, too often taken from surrounding reality, are infinite in the representation of the dark and saddening places of torment.”Aymonier was speaking of the monumental bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat and the frequently terrifying scenes, but their grim reflection will be found in Pol Pot’s brief reign. One to three million dead, it’s anyone’s guess. The dikes and dams and canals have collapsed or melted away along with the anticipation of limitless food even as the fields continue to yield an annual harvest of blasted limbs and death due to the million plus landmines that remain.
Etienne Aymonier, 1901

Renakse Hotel (Apsaras On The Balcony) - 60" x 46"

“…into the middle of the room rushed a fantastic adorable creature; an apsara from Angkor! It would have been impossible to create a more perfect illusion…the same enigmatic smile; the same lowered eyelids; the same young virgin’s breasts…”
Pierre Loti 1908
Apsaras were the heavenly entertainers of the gods, their charms the rewards of kings and heroes. The heroes have left the stage, replaced by pale, fleshy westerners, flush with liquor and the unfamiliar heat. Henri Parmentier commented in 1923, “To some observers the celestial dancers seem effected and monotonous…” The same might be said of their flesh and bone contemporaries. Down the side streets of Phnom Penh, behind the battered steel rolling shudders they wait, forever smiling in dimly-lit cubicles reeking of urine and beer…yours for five dollars…your apsara is waiting.

Sambo - 40" x 40"

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