Untitled (Floors and Walk)

Untitled (Floor and Walk) (Lot 157) is an intimate work consisting of Sopheap Pich's archetypal grid pattern woven from filaments of bamboo and rattan. The formalism in his works of this repetitive nature, points visually to the Minimalist movement of the 1960s, evoking Sol LeWitt's modular structures of skeletal cubes. However, unlike the Minimalists who actively sought to remove all traces of the artist from their works, Pich maintains a connection to his heritage and cultural history stating that "[a]s a Cambodian-born artist, having lived through the Khmer Rouge and as a refugee afterwards, I think it is obvious to me that those experiences would find their way into my work."

Looking at Untitled (Floor and Walk), the gestural quality with which the work is executed, points to the physical act of manipulating the materials in the process of creation and craftsmanship. Indeed, a great influence for Pich was mingei, a Japanese folk art movement and philosophy based on the teachings of Yanagi Sōetsu; everyday utilitarian objects and practices were attributed a spiritual dimension. Humble constituent elements in Pich's works are elevated to the wondrous, subverting traditional notions of the preciousness that usually characterises a work of art. The spiritual undercurrent of his works is further accentuated through the meditative act of weaving one unit after another to produce his lattice-like sculptures.