In his first solo exhibition Tragedy, opening at Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center on 11 janvier, artist Than Sok displays a collection of over one hundred small prayer houses, or Phtéa ktome, made of incense sticks, each of them delicately burned and marked. The careful construction and monotony of the houses reference a common human desire for happiness and prosperity for ourselves and our relatives, while the holes and stains are the artist’s gesture of sharing another human experience, that of suffering. Than Sok (1984, Takeo) graduated from Reyum Art School in 2005. He completed various traditional and contemporary public painting commissions in Cambodia, including those at the National Archives and the United States Embassy buildings. From 2005-2007, he continued his studies in the experimental Reyum Workshop program, during which his practice broadened from influence by visiting artists who encouraged work with everyday materials. Than has been in various group shows at Reyum Gallery in Phnom Penh, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong, and was a resident at Tokyo's Wonder Site, Tokyo. His current artistic practice of building small structures is an extension of his second-year study in architecture.