Nang Suy

Nang Suy
11 x 14 inches, stencil-print, 2020 (#1)

For several years now, since I purchased Bamboo on the Mountains [Smithsonian, 1999], the Kmhmu people have been represented by paintings in this blog. Teum singing by Ya' Ak and Ya' Seu Keodaeng, one of my favorite tracks from the disc, returns from last year and will follow a little later. Now, at a provisional number seven on this year's list, a Kmhmu recording from a newly discovered source: Voices of the World: An Anthology of Vocal Expression. [Les Voix du Monde] I spent the last two days preparing for this print by channeling the incredible presence of the tune and its singer, staring at the image of Nang Suy (a surprise find after extensive web searches) and listening to the recording. In most of the eleven images for the Top 100 2020 completed thus far I've used stencils to some degree. Several could potentially be recreated not as an identical print but as a recreation of the original one using the stencils as guides. For this print titled Nang Su I signed it as an open edition, meaning I can print on demand or as I see fit. No two prints could be alike in this process and I included in the image below a second in the edition. The Kmhmu (K'mu on the French language disc and Khmu on Wikipedia) are the highland people of northern Laos and their language that extends into Thailand, Vietnam, and China (Ya' Ak and Ya' Seu Keodaeng are from Thailand). Laos, as I have been forwarding the COVID numbers from different countries, have not been greatly affected by the virus as their reported cases stand at 19. No one has died from it. 

Nang Suy
11 x 14 inches, stencil-print, 2020 (#2)