Dara Kong’s inner struggle with the unfinished is depicted through his technique of mapping territories. His journey is a way to question how one’s sense of belonging is influenced and negated by our movement in and out of different communities. The Cambodian artist creates cartographic records of human movement, including his own, in various neighborhoods by transforming their paths into interlocking vines that stretch out incessantly: the beginning and the end of the map undetermined. His series of urban labyrinths, where fruit-shaped humans rendezvous then separate, underlies Dara’s attempt to understand the currents of the foreign culture as well as to harbor a sense of belonging in his new found ‘home’. As Dara continues to reach new terrains, his ceaseless exploration and new relationships fuel his maps to expand, perhaps as anchors for his floating mind that always seeks acceptance and kindness. To search for ‘home’ in a foreign land, isn’t that in itself a journey that is never quite finished?
