A thousand years ago, a colossal statue of the Hindu god Vishnu reclined on a serpent-shaped pedestal in a temple in the Cambodian kingdom of Angkor. Newly conserved, this national treasure has toured four major institutions worldwide in the past year. The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is the only West Coast venue where the monumental statue can be seen before it returns to Cambodia.
For the first time in centuries, audiences can experience the full, nearly twenty-foot-long scale of “the most important bronze artwork of Cambodia,” says Chhay Visoth, director of the National Museum of Cambodia. “This is the last chance that this great masterpiece will be out of the country,” notes Visoth.
The awe-inspiring West Mebon Reclining Vishnu offers a window onto the grandeur and sophistication of the Khmer civilization. “Cambodia takes immense pride in the creations of our ancestors,” says Minister of Culture and Fine Arts Phoeurng Sackona, “whose works, despite being thousands of years old, continue to serve as the nation’s greatest cultural ambassadors on the world stage.”
The statue’s original location — a temple surrounded by the expansive waters of a reservoir — echoes the Hindu creation story in which a sleeping Vishnu, drifting in the primordial “cosmic ocean” atop a coiled serpent, dreams the universe into existence, explains exhibition curator Natasha Reichle, associate curator of Southeast Asian Art at the Asian Art Museum.
An accompanying film by Cambodian American director praCh Ly documents the community around the present-day reservoir through a day in the life of a local fisherman and a young Buddhist monk, filling the gallery with the subtle, serene sounds of a vast body of water.
“The exhibition highlights the importance of water, both in the mythology around Vishnu and as a crucial resource in ancient Angkor,” says Reichle, “exploring connections between art, water, and power that continue to resonate globally in the present day.”
For more information please visit the Asian Art Museum website.
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