Tith Kanitha (b. 1987 in Phnom Penh; lives in Phnom Penh) creates sculptures by first coiling rolls of .03 inch gauge steel wire around a thin copper rod, then cutting and bending the long, sprung form into sections that are joined together. This practice has given the artist a way to unspool inner thoughts, feelings, and desires, in addition to those that may be inherited or diffused in culture. Although she did not live through Cambodia’s dictatorship and civil war (1975–79)—resulting in the loss of approximately two million people and a vast majority of the country’s artists—Tith’s work acknowledges the enduring presence of loss and destruction decades later. Through her slow, attenuated approach to making, she processes the complex and unknowable dimensions of this past, while imbuing the present with energy and imagination.
Tith’s drawings on paper extend the exploration of line and process found in her sculptures. Here, she uses similar pieces of coiled wire to apply ink and acrylic paint to large sheets of watercolor paper. Navigating material, texture, color, and space, the abstract drawings privilege experimentation and philosophical inquiry over realism and technical mastery. While she remains unsure about her relationship to the history of abstract art, she is committed to owning abstraction in her experiences and in feelings that “remain from one generation to another, from past to present and to the future, from time to space and from space to time.”
