Treeline Urban Resort showcases artist Maline Yim’s colourful and intriguing visions in latest exhibition

SIEM REAP—Treeline Urban Resort, a luxury art and design hotel along the leafy banks of the Siem Reap River, announces an upcoming exhibition featuring one of Cambodia’s most exciting artists, Maline Yim. Entitled The Shadow of Change II, the one-woman show will open at Treeline Gallery, the hotel’s open-air exhibition space dedicated to promoting local talent, on 27 October and remain on display until January 2020.

The Shadow of Change II is an extension of Maline’s first solo exhibition — The Shadow of Change, held at Richard Koh Fine Art in Singapore — and features four tissue paper sculpture pieces and 10 wall-mounted mixed media works. The art pieces, inspired by a recent trip to the rapidly transforming province of Kampong Som, a hotspot for foreign investment and construction in the country, also reflect Maline’s layered observations and complex feelings about the current realities in her home country and the state of the environment around the world.

“Shadow of Change 5” By Maline Yim

“Change is sometimes good, and sometime it isn’t good; it depends on the shadows and effects of change,” Maline explains. The 37-year-old artist spent eight years honing her art at the Phare Ponleu Selpak in Battambang, where she was born, before moving on to further studies at École Supérieure des Beaux-arts de Caen, in France, where she received a BFA/National Diploma in Plastic Arts in 2010. Since then, Maline and her works have travelled all over Cambodia and around the world, from the United States to France, South Africa to Japan.

Her upcoming show at Treeline continues her explorations of the often-fraught but always complex relationship between the environment and an ever-changing society. Exhibition curator Meta Moeng further unpacks the value of the artist’s point of view: “Maline investigates the notion of landscape, and how the beauty of nature has changed through the changes in society, and how this is reconstructed in memory….”

The resulting art pieces are dazzling and wild recollections of natural worlds lost to galloping development and sacrificed in the name of material progress.

“We feel very privileged and honoured to be able to present such varied perspectives and such wonderfully interesting voices, from established artists such as Maline Yim to up-andcoming talent,” says Treeline’s General Manager Joni Aker. “Creativity, along with community, is part of our DNA. These are two of our guiding principles at Treeline and are part of everything we do — from showcasing Cambodian heritage and art as a way of celebrating the local culture and people, to supporting talented, up-and-coming creatives.”

The Shadow of Change II is Treeline Gallery’s fourth art exhibition since the resort opened in November 2018. Earlier this year, the gallery paid tribute to late Vann Molyvann, Cambodia’s most prolific architect whose many works defined an entire movement, with scale models of several of his iconic projects. It was followed by a group show called Ti Prasap (meaning “Confluence” in English), a rare public display of collector Larry Strange’s private collection built over decades of living in the kingdom.

Treeline Gallery’s programme is part of the hotel’s efforts at supporting and promoting Cambodia’s contemporary art, now coming of age. An estimated 90% of the country’s working artists were targeted and executed by the brutal Khmer Rouge regime, which overtook the country from 1975-79. And while a new generation of young and exciting artists are making waves, there remains a lack of art infrastructure — from art schools to exhibition spaces and museums. Treeline aims to fill this void through its year-round programme of exhibitions at the open-air gallery and through its permanent collection artwork by some of the country’s best artists, displayed all around the property. The hotel also has plans to create a foundation to support the country’s aspiring artists, says Treeline’s founder and architect Hok Kang.

Part of Treeline’s larger vision for the city is to help regenerate Siem Reap’s riverside district into a buzzing creative district for tourists and locals alike. Kang believes the area has endless opportunities, not to mention historical significance: as one of the country’s most sacred waterways, it flows from the waterfalls of Kulen Mountain — which have ancient lingas carved into the riverbeds — meanders around the temples of Angkor and then into present-day Siem Reap, before flowing out into the vast Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in all of Asia.

“Siem Reap without this river wouldn’t be such an inspiring city — so we need to protect it.When you drive or stroll along this tree-lined river, and there’s a cool breeze in the air,there’s nothing quite as magical. My dream is to see the r iver turned into a leafy, clean community space  with public art installations and pop-up galleries,” he said.

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Treeline Urban Resort is a privately owned, 48-room design hotel on Siem Reap’s riverside in Cambodia. Treeline Urban Resort offers a one-of-a-kind home for guests traveling to gateway city for the temples of Angkor. Masterfully crafted with leading Cambodian artists, our curated experience includes dedicated spaces for a growing private collection of contemporary art. www.treelinehotels.com