Linda Sok

Cambodian Australian artist Linda Sok navigates complex memories of loss, dispossession, love and family through the medium of discarded, repurposed textiles. Her work in Home and Away utilises fabrics that her grandmother and aunt had sewn together many years before, producing a cross-generational collaborative work as a means of sharing language and culture. Like other artists in the exhibition, Sok feels disconnected from her Cambodian heritage and language. By piecing together these different textiles she is piecing together stories from her childhood, including her family’s flight from the Khmer Rouge and the Cambodian genocide.

Watch Linda Sok’s interview with curators Luise Guest and Jennifer Yang

Think About/Discuss:

Sok speaks about being a ‘generation down’. What is she referring to and how does this impact her cultivation of ideas and concepts?
Sok reflects on her migration to the US for an art residency and her parents’ migration to Australia from Cambodia. Think about someone’s personal experience, list the feelings, issues, concerns and experiences that take place in both a chosen and forced migration. Compare your two lists and extend your questioning to analyse the impact freedom and belonging has on a person’s wellbeing.
What is the significance of textiles in Sok’s practice? What choices and decisions does she make to deepen the materials connection to family and culture?