About

Paulina Seng is a multi-disciplinary artist and designer.

Informed by her background as a first generation Cambodian-American, her art aims to examine and explore the evolution of Cambodian culture, from prehistoric, ancient times into the modern day diaspora, how the culture has shifted through its encounters with Indian and Chinese trade, French colonization, American occupation, communistic dictatorship, and the subsequent global dissemination of the Cambodian people and their impact and assimilation into the culture of their new homes.

Despite these many influences, her work highlights the spirit and soul of Cambodian culture through a modern lens, bringing a conscious renewal of tradition into a new world wrought with colonization, cultural conflict, and the erasure of the indigenous.

While some of her work is more obviously influenced by her indigenous heritage, anthropological and historical studies, others are much more subtle. Not only is there a vast and recognizable visual language to draw from, but a spirit and philosophy to be inspired by.

Through her creativity, she becomes a channel in order to beautify the world around her; beautification as a spiritual practice, acknowledging that to create beauty in one’s world is to create peace, to appreciate beauty is to appreciate joy.

As a second generation Khmae-American, Paulina is a descendant of survivors of a regime that sought to silence and murder artists, creatives, and critical thinkers. To be an artist now is to honor the strength and bravery of what generations of Cambodians suffered through. Her artistry is an offering to her ancestors who lost their most precious gift of life, just for being artists themselves. Their courage lives still.

She ultimately expresses the sentiments of her ancestors; that art is created by and for the people, that it is a means of spiritual expression and connection, and that it is a constant dialogue between the artist, her connection to the Divine Forces of being, the intentions of her ancestors, and the potential of her descendants.