Linda Sok: Reincarnations of an altar cloth

Reincarnations of an altar cloth presents a selection of works from the ongoing series Deities in Temples by Cambodian-Australian artist Linda Sok. 

Delving into the matrilineal practice of Pidan, Deities in Temples presents re-imaginings of lost, stolen, collected, and destroyed silk weavings. Pidan, a poly-chromatic weft silk weaving tradition, faced near erasure due to the targeted persecution of weavers during the Cambodian Khmer Rouge Regime. This resulted in a scarcity of ancestral weaving knowledge. Through this body of work, Sok engages with decolonial practices and methodologies to reclaim fragments of her Cambodian heritage.

Sok collaborated with family members to produce this body of work, inspired by descriptions written on museum registration cards. Found in the archives of the National Museum of Cambodia, these cards are the only documents verifying the existence of the original weavings. Using both imagination and memory, the colonial practices of cataloguing and record keeping by French archivists are reclaimed by Sok to produce new ways to connect to lost heritage. Drawings, paintings, and sketches by her family were compiled to serve as the foundation for a new visual narrative. These elements are interwoven to create this body of work, in a deliberate process of construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction.

Reincarnations of an altar cloth is a Campbelltown Arts Centre exhibition presented in partnership with Murray Art Museum Albury. The exhibition includes new work commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre that expands the visual narrative of the ongoing series.