The Power of Oil Painting in Reflecting Social Concerns in Cambodia

Noticeably, Cambodia’s youth are particularly exposed to various forms of vulnerabilities, primarily in the context of mental health and social discriminations. Therefore, in order to raise more awareness regarding these social challenges, Kouprey Creative Solutions had initiated an oil painting activity for graphic design teams to broaden their understanding of new things beyond their daily works.

Moreover, through this initiative, it is an opportunity for them to enhance their friendship and improve their creativity and team spirit. This team-building activity was divided into three groups—Hope, Wave, and 6 Lines. After a month, each team had conducted research and thought of creative concepts to produce an oil painting and KOUPREY Creative Solutions recently organized a small exhibition, aiming to display the paintings and present their message to the public. In particular, all the teams also created each video about their work process from research to painting that you can watch in these videos.

1. Hope Group’s Painting:

The key message of the Hope group’s painting: Hope is a key motivation for everyone, who is experiencing all the difficulties in their lives. This painting is to send a message to everyone that no one is not in trouble. However, we should learn from the intelligent rabbit in Khmer mythical literature, who could solve every problem in a smart and flexible way. It is similar to our daily life that we faced a number of problems both in the family and at the workplace as well as in personal life. A light of hope must exist for ourselves and must be an indispensable motivation for our lives; therefore, we need to figure out and dare to face the problem.  Additionally, we must continue the adventure of our life that leads to the better for yourself and the hope for the family.

 

2. Wave Group’s Painting:

The key message of the Wave group’s painting: This painting has depicted the life of a young boy, who has obsessively hidden his true feeling for almost 15 years. Being born as a man but naturally having felt like a woman is extremely undeniable. However, it is a joke for some people. Traditionally speaking, generating descendant is a hard pressure for being gay. It is often said that “love has no reason”.However, to get socially accepted, the love of the LGBTQ community in Cambodia is often fraught with a number of obstacles, including the surrounding environment such as family, friends, and society as a whole.

 

3. 6 Lines Group’s Painting:

The key message of the 6 Lines group’s painting: Currently, people are living in this world by heavily relying on technology to make their lives easier, but it does not mean that it could completely fulfill all the needs of human beings. Looking back at the past, modern technology systems were absent to satisfy the needs of humankind. Thus, what kind of problems did people face during that time? That’s the reason why now we strive to find new convenient methods and technologies to fulfill the needs of people. Apparently, as it was shown in this painting, the butterfly was symbolized as human beings and it was reflected the principles of development in our society. In particular, the gate of the Preah Vihear temple is a symbol of the preservation of Khmer culture and civilization. Moreover, the fire was added to the picture to show the power of energy and we drew an artificial beach in the air, aiming to enlighten the needs and dreams of human beings. However, we could not exactly know whether in the future the technology will be like what we think of or not, but these are just our imaginations.