At first blush, Cambodia seemed to us to be a relatively handicraft light culture. Obviously, that’s not the case. Anywhere. There’s weaving, painting, leather work, ceramics, printing… What fooled us is that the aesthetic here is fairly subtle, and our taste runs more to the gaudy, clown car colors of Mexico and the Maghreb. There was plenty here. We just couldn’t see it until our eyes adjusted.

As with most places we’ve been, there’s also a clear distinction between goods manufactured for tourists and the real deal. There are artisans working in purely traditional forms, but there are also a lot of local makers who are taking traditional methods and subject matter and mixmastering them through a modern sensibility. Both of those are sweet spots for us, so it was a treat when we were finally able to see what’s truly going on here.

Which observation requires what is becoming a standard disclaimer on our Cambodian trip: Except for all that genocide.

We’ve had to come to grips on our travels with both the impact of active, ongoing fuckery (Cuba) and the echoes of past colonial fuckery (everywhere else: Mexico, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey). And sure, if you’re an honest American you have to respect all the hard work put in to extinguishing Native American culture.

That’s certainly the closest analogue I have any direct knowledge of to what the Khmer Rouge did to Cambodian culture. But you can look away from the Native American genocide. I’m not saying it’s morally defensible to do so, I’m just saying it’s possible. Obviously. Lot’s of people do.

But you can’t look away in Cambodia. It’s too recent, only 46 years past, and there’s something about the compressed nature of the extinction level cataclysm that still reverberates today. In only four years, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge eliminated upwards of 90% of Cambodia’s artists and intellectuals, either by starvation or execution. Unsurprisingly, this feels like the unspoken organizing principle underlying all of modern Cambodian society.

And it is literally impossible to ignore it when having a discussion about any form of Cambodian culture, as the arts were particularly and specifically targeted by the regime. All forms of pre-revolutionary arts were banned and their practitioners rounded up. The only art that was permitted was that which explicitly supported the Khmer Rouge political agenda.

So when we talk about modern Cambodian art and its relationship to “traditional” forms, we have to understand that those traditions are a fever dream imagined by a shattered people, a few surviving artists recreating what they could recall of their past, filtered through their suffering and trauma. It’s a testament to Cambodians’ strength that these arts exist today in any form at all, but that doesn’t mean we can pretend that there is an unbroken chain in their traditions.

One of the byproducts of this history is that Cambodia is rife with collectives and social organizations, which pair supporting traditional crafts with supporting at risk populations. In addition to training artisans to keep endangered crafts alive, they offer a range of services, including financial support, child care, nutrition support, banking services, and distribution capabilities. These organizations are prominent in Cambodia because they are necessary.

All of this is why our search for craft villages (“Where do they make the reed mats?”) has come to nothing. If certain crafts were once centralized by geography, as is the norm in many parts of the world, that’s no longer the case here. Those village-based networks were destroyed, and the social organizations that have arisen to care for both the crafts and the crafters don’t have a location specific focus. They help people where they can.

Having said all that, which is, admittedly, a lot, there’s a wealth of beauty to be found in Cambodian arts and crafts once you get past the tourist trinkets.

Weaving

Weaving is a big deal here. They’ve been making sophisticated ikat patterns for centuries, and they are home to the Golden Silkworm, a particularly Cambodian beast that produces an exceptionally fine silk. The art form has, of course, been painstakingly recreated, but it is currently thriving.

We’re obviously shopping well below that level, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t beautiful things made of excellent materials. In fact, we’ve had to remind ourselves that we’re spending ten weeks in Bali and Java, ground zero for batiks, so we shouldn’t go overboard here. I suspect that most of what we return with will be fabric. As is usually the case, it seems.

Reed weaving is also a big thing here. We thought we’d found a collective to visit when we did our Angkor Thom tour, but we never located it. However, we were able to find Salasusu, a shop representing a village weaving collective right in the Old Market in Siem Reap, of all places. And man, did they have beautiful things.

It doesn’t all have to be art. The local styles used on behalf of plastic housewares are their own form of art. We’ve added these to our collection of Plastic From Around The World.

Ceramics

Confession: the ceramics here did not initially sing to us. Too subtle by half, for our garish aesthetic.

Then we found the Khmer Ceramics & Fine Arts Centre, which is funny, because it’s all of two blocks from our apartment. It’s a maker space for local ceramics artisans, with all of the necessary equipment and materials. And there were plenty of pieces there that resonated. We didn’t load up like we did in the Maghreb, but we’re delighted with what we found there.

Clothing

This was another area where we had to remind ourselves not to go crazy, with Vietnam and Indonesia up next. But that was hard to remember, as the clothes here are vibrant, varied, and inexpensive.

Plus, we both packed clothes we knew to be on their last legs, so we could replace them with fun, new things. We could make that wardrobe swap entirely in Cambodia, but we have exerted heroic self control to keep our powder dry for our next stops.

Jewelry

The jewelry hasn’t leapt onto us here, but Dorothy is nothing if not determined. There will be jewelry.

Prints

Again, not a ridiculous amount of depth, but that’s what careful shopping is for. We found a shop whose proprietor made linoleum woodblock prints, which he started making after an electrical accident cost him both arms just below the elbow. Honestly, it’s amazing to think of “I’ll start making art now” as a response to that.

We also found a local artist who had a lighthearted, cartoony take on all the Hindu and Buddhist mythology. Charming.

Leather

While there were a few shops that specialized in leather goods, the real action here is with the punched leather shadow puppets. Curiously, we found the two best makers in the Art Center Night Market, which was otherwise mostly manufactured tourist stuff. And that’s why we’re not on a tourist cadence. It takes time to dig deep, in all contexts.

Wood

At first we thought this distinctively grained wood was coconut, but it’s a local palm called the Sugar Palm. We’ve only seen it used for housewares, although it’s reputed to be used for sculpture, as well. We just haven’t run across any.

The Commercial Arts

Graphic design, product design, and signage all absolutely count as art. There’s always entertaining examples on the street and in the stores.