Songhak Ky (1950, Kandal – 2000, Berlin) was a Cambodian artist who came to the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1972 to study art and design (metal and enamel work). He fled to the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in 1987 and did not return to Cambodia until his death in 2000.
Influenced by the formalist principles of the Bauhaus and his professor Irmtraud Ohme, Ky developed a visual language influenced by Western design ideology, which was recognized by the state in the 1960s. In 1980, he joined the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR, whose history is linked to that of galerie weisser elefant. After fleeing to West Berlin in 1987, Ky distanced himself from the Cambodian embassy and manifested a cosmopolitan aesthetic that resisted cultural essentialism. He never returned to Cambodia until his death in 2000.
Some of Songhak Ky’s sculptures are part of the exhibition DISLOCATIONS—within reach.