Yim Maline

b. 1982, Battambang, Cambodia
Lives and works in Siem Reap, Cambodia

Yim Maline currently lives and works in Siem Reap. Yim studied art at Phare Ponleu Selapak in Battambang (1995-2003), and received a BFA/Diplôme National Arts Plastiques from the École Supérieure des Beaux-arts de Caen, France, in 2010. Her solo exhibitions include Silk Threads (The Insider Gallery at the Intercontinental Hotel, Phnom Penh, 2012), No Name (Cambodia Youth Arts Festival / SA SA BASSAC, Phnom Penh, 2012) and Remember (SA SA BASSAC, Phnom Penh, 2011). Group exhibitions include New Journey (Cambodia Living Arts Gallery, Phnom Penh, 2012), Seven (Hotel de la Paix, Siem Reap, 2012), and Eight Women (French Cultural Center, Phnom Penh, 2011). In 2013 she was an artist-in-residence at Bose Pascia as part of the Season of Cambodia IN RESIDENCE program in New York City.

Maline’s practice is located within the social consciousness of post-war Cambodia and is replete with references to cultural and social symbols that deal with loss and ambiguity. Through her drawings and sculpture-making, she reconstructs memory (both social and personal) as an act of commemoration and enshrinement of the natural environment lost to war and economic policies. She is one of a small (albeit growing) handful of female Khmer artists. Whilst they all share a multi-medium approach to art-making, Yim is the only one who produces drawing, and tackles most centrally the changing natural environment around the world.