Photo: Sam Roberts

My recent viewing of the excellent Horn Please movie reminded me of this discovery in Battambang which I made just before leaving Cambodia. While the trucks of India, Bangladesh and Brazil (to name a few) are consistently decorated in vibrantly coloured words and pictures, those in Cambodia are more restrained in their appearance. There is the occasional depiction of Angkor Wat but other than that the only addition to the factory paintwork is the mud and dust depending on whether it is the rainy or dry season respectively. In that respect the truck pictured above (details below) is a rarity.

Based on the illustration I am guessing that this is a wedding and events entertainment company of some sort but perhaps Khmer readers of the blog can add to this suggestion in the comments below. In terms of the production of the lettering and illustration, it is clear that this has benefited from the use of an airbrush or other spray painting device. Those who have a copy of the book can compare the letter highlighted below with those profiled on pages 52-3 as it is the same letter of the alphabet, pronounced ‘ngor’.

Photo: Sam Roberts

Photo: Sam Roberts

Photo; Sam Roberts

Banteay Meanchey province

I am pleased to announce that I will be speaking at the Sign Design Society in London on the topic of Cambodia’s hand-painted advertising next month on the evening of Thursday, 6th June. Full details of the talk are contained in this leaflet (and on this page of the Sign Design Society website and on this Facebook event page).

Signed copies of the book will also be for sale at the event for the bargain price of £10.

I hope you can make it along, don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the talk or the book, or anything else hand-painted sign related…

The popularity of hand-painted signs in Cambodia seems to be increasing on a daily basis. During last week’s ‘road show’ to launch the book in Phnom Penh I learned of a new shop that, among many other things, is selling the odd original hand-painted sign. The shop is called trunkh. and can be found on Sothearos Boulevard, just up the road from Cambodian Living Arts, home of the current exhibition.

I decided to investigate and stumbled upon owners Doug and Marianne when I visited last Thursday. Here’s what I found out…

Doug and Marianne, respectively graphic designer and advertising creative director by trade, are friends and ‘creative partners’ in this venture inspired by their mutual love of all things Cambodian. Marianne is a Phnom Penh veteran of five years while Doug moved to the city 18 months go after being seduced during a visit from his then home of Bangkok.

The shop has a mixture of household items, jewellery, clothing, decorations and toys for sale. In some cases these are genuine Cambodian objects while others are inspired by things in Cambodia. The retail area has the feel of a second-hand shop back home in London but with brand new items juxtaposed with worn and weathered relics of the street. In the picture above you can see a hand-painted key cutting booth used to display jewellery and, beside that, bags printed with chairs salvaged by Doug and Marianne. It is this mixture of Cambodia and ‘inspired by Cambodia’ that makes the shop stand out compared to the standard Phnom Penh fare.

The prints are Marianne’s work and the dog shown here is reminiscent of one of the guard dog signs from the book. Both Marianne and Doug emphasised that they want the shop to celebrate “beautiful Cambodian things” whether these are “stupid, silly, wonderful or gorgeous”. They both count the hand-painted signs amongst these things but this isn’t their main trade. The handful currently found in the shop were either already discarded by the owners or on the cusp of replacement. Their philosophy is that they don’t want to deplete the streets of these quirky signs, only to offer them a life beyond what their owners have in mind.

The shop, as the name suggests, is a real “trunk of treasures” curated by two passionate collectors. The ‘h’ at the end of the name is silent, as in Phnom Penh, but is there to leave the ending as ‘kh’, the two letter demarcation for Cambodia on the internet. It’s location is slightly off the beaten track but Marianne and Doug were both emphatic in their love of the location, directly opposite the ‘White Building’ by Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann. It’s a fitting location for this celebration of all things Cambodian, not least its hand-painted signs.

Thank you Doug and Marianne for taking the time to talk to me. The shop has a Facebook page and a website coming soon.

Eye Magazine is a leading design publication and they kindly invited me to write a guest post about Cambodia’s hand-painted signs. This give a flavour of the book and features some of my favourite images, including the one above which still fascinates me for its paradoxical approach to perspective…

After last month’s publication to the rest of the world, Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie is now coming to Cambodia. To celebrate its publication here there will be a number of events in Phnom Penh. Throughout this time, and beyond, the book will be available to buy from all branches of Monument Books for $15.

1. Tuesday, 4th December (6.00pm) – Private view of ‘Living Cambodia Through Signs’ exhibition at Cambodian Living Arts
2. Wednesday, 5th December (6.00pm) – Book launch at Monument Books
3. Monday, 7th January (7.30pm) – Talk at Nerd Night, venue TBC

1. Living Cambodia Through Signs

This will be a month-long exhibition hosted by Cambodian Living Arts. In addition to my own photography (examples above) there will be a number of original signs on display. The exhibition opens with a private view at 6.00pm on Tuesday, 4th December, where I will give a short talk and be available for signing books. After this event the exhibition will run until Saturday, 5th January 2013.

The address for Cambodian Living Arts is #128 G9, Sothearos Boulevard, Phnom Penh (023 986 032). The event is also listed on Facebook.

2. Book Launch at Monument Books

I will be giving a talk about my personal engagement with hand-painted signs and the process of discovering them in Cambodia. This will be to officially launch the book at Monument Books where I will also be available for signing copies. The event will start at 6.00pm on Wednesday, 5th December in the Blue Pumpkin cafe, 1st Floor, Monument Books, #111, Norodom Boulevard, Phnom Penh (023 217 617). The event is also listed on Facebook.

3. Talk at Nerd Night

I will be giving a presentation in the ‘Pecha Kucha’ format as a way of sharing my nerdy passion for Cambodia’s hand-painted signs. This will require the discipline of delivering my piece in 20 slides with just 20 seconds of talking allocated to each one. The event is free and will be in Phnom Penh (venue TBC) alongside some other nerds from 7.30pm on Monday, 7th January. The event is listed on Facebook where you can also find the official Nerd Night page.

And not forgetting…

Joel Montague’s exhibition at the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles and the closing days of the Phnom Penh Look exhibition at Java Arts in Phnom Penh…

Hand-painted signs from Cambodia are clearly in vogue. This week I learned about the publication of another book on the topic, following Robert Joiner’s in 2005 and my own this month. The new book was launched with an exhibition in Phnom Penh, adding to the one at Java Arts. There’s then the forthcoming exhibition from Joel Montague in Los Angeles, and my own which will open in Phnom Penh in December. These signs are clearly of the moment and perhaps this is to be expected as they become increasingly rare due to their replacement by printed formats.

‘Carnet de rencontres au Cambodge: au fil des routes…’ is a French language publication from Tuk Tuk Editions and takes a very different approach to the topic compared to mine and Robert Joiner’s books. Authors Sophie & Christian Provoost have lived in Cambodia for ten years and, during that time, have developed a passion for the country’s hand-painted signs. However, unlike me and Robert Joiner, they have taken the time to get to know some of the shop owners whose businesses these signs advertise. These “meetings on the road” are then the focus for the book as they delve into the lives of Cambodia’s many small, independent traders.

Photo: Sophie & Christian Provoost

I went along to view the exhibition that has launched the book in Phnom Penh and met up with Sophie and Christian to discuss our shared passion and exchange our respective books. It was a fascinating meeting, not least because of the many original signs that they have collected in the course of their research. They told me that at the end of some of their interviews with shop owners they would ask to buy a new sign if they could take the old one for themselves. In most cases they were successful, although at least one leader of a music group refused the request because his sign of 30 years has brought him good luck. In the case of the one below, Sophie’s favourite, they found it lying unused at the back of a shed.

From the collection of Sophie & Christian Provoost

As we flicked through each other’s books we started to notice signs from each with very similar illustrations, a couple of beauty salons and barbers in particular. This is something that I discuss in my book and the current theory is that the people on these signs are often celebrities with their pictures copied from magazines and other easily accessible source materials. This would explain why the same pictures appear on signs from very different parts of the country.

Exhibition at Plantation in Phnom Penh

Sadly the exhibition will only run until 20th November but, as you can see from the picture above, it is packed full of beautiful signs collected during their research. As we talked about acquiring signs Sophie and Christian were keen to point out that their intention in doing so is not to create a market for these signs or to profit from them in the future. Like me they simply have an appreciation for the beauty and craft of the signs and want them as decoration for their home. There is no doubt that they have succeeded in selecting some choice examples, some more of which follow.

A family affair

The book has a dedicated website where you can order for worldwide delivery. For those in Cambodia the book is available from all branches of Monument Books. French readers may also be interested in this piece about the book from Le Petit Journal.

Thank you to Sophie, Christian and daughter for taking the time to meet with me and share your work. It really is a meeting of minds and a remarkable coincidence that two books on such a niche topic could be published within a fortnight of each other.

From the collection of Sophie and Christian Provoost

From the collection of Sophie & Christian Provoost

From the collection of Sophie & Christian Provoost

From the collection of Sophie & Christian Provoost

From the collection of Sophie & Christian Provoost

From the collection of Sophie & Christian Provoost

Photo: Jim Tulloch

Cambodian hand-painted signs are clearly in vogue. Today sees the opening of the first of two exhibitions centred on the topic in Phnom Penh, the second being my own which will open on 4th December. (There is also the Fowler Museum exhibition happening in Los Angeles so it’s not just in Cambodia where these signs are gaining recognition…)

‘The Phnom Penh Look’ takes a focused look at the world of beauty signs through the lens of photographer Jim Tulloch. His collection of images has been donated to the child protection NGO Friends International who have taken them as inspiration for a product range called The Phnom Penh Look.

It seems that Jim’s motivation is along similar lines to mine and others’, especially in the sense of trying to capture something in decline. Like I do in the book, he also shares his thoughts on what these signs represent of Cambodian culture:

“…hairdresser signs seemed to be everywhere. This itself said something about Phnom Penh and the aspiration of its population to look smart, fashionable, at whatever level they could afford.”

The exhibition runs at Java Arts from today until 9th December and I’ll be going for a look as soon as I’m next in Phnom Penh. You can see 25 of the images featured on the exhibition’s information page alongside more insights from Jim Tulloch.

Photo: Gilly Clifford

We’ve currently got guests over from the UK and my wife has taken them to Koh Kong in the South West of the country from where she has sent this despatch of signs, all painted on blue in the traditional Khmer style. These dentist signs never fail to shock me, on the one above it looks like the tooth is set inside a number ’1′ but this would not be my first choice if I needed any work done!

Photo: Gilly Clifford

Another one from the guard dog category.

Photo: Gilly Clifford

Any finally one showing its age, at lest the TV on the right of the picture.

I’ll be going to Koh Kong and a few other places around the country myself in the next couple of months so look out for more despatches from the wonderful world of Cambodia’s hand-painted signs.

Photo: Olivia Wynne

It’s official, Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie is now available to buy from Amazon.com and a number of other retailers. The book comes in a print edition and two different eBook formats for devices like iPad, Kindle, Nook and more. There’s also a free preview to let you try before you buy and a free Khmer translation of the text. You can explore your options on the ‘Buy’ page.

Above is the first sale of a rare proof copy to my good friend Ingran’s dad, Nada Lingham. He got it signed too. Hopefully you’ll join him and me in this celebration of Cambodia’s hand-painted signs. (Signings are subject to availability!)

Photo: Olivia Wynne

The Advisor

The Advisor is a weekly arts and entertainment freesheet in Phnom Penh and today they featured this great article by Cassandra Naji ahead of the book‘s publication later this week. You can download the full pdf of the magazine here (article on page 13, page 7 in the pdf) or follow this link to a full copy of the piece on Cassandra Naji’s website.

[Regular readers may remember some of the great images that Cassandra shared a while back. See more press about the book on these posts, and visit the press page if you are a publication interested in covering the book in some way. Don't forget that free previews and the eBook edition are already available here.]