“The Relief series is a departure from previous works that happened after the last grand scale piece, the Morning Glory in 2010. . . . [Now] I wanted a new parameter to work in. I asked myself: what if I start with nothing? No preconception, no goals . . . just a clean space. Can anything in me come out? Does it resonate? So I looked back and realized that every single sculpture I’d made utilized the grid as its structure. . . . So my assistants and I set out to make different sizes of grid structures without knowing what else to do with them. In the meantime, I had been collecting different color dirt and pebbles from different parts of Cambodia during my travels. I don’t know how important it was but for me I always thought that nature is so much more interesting than politics and culture. I wanted to fill my mind with what my eyes see and what possibility would come of it. I had also been collecting different beeswax through the years. . . .It was only a matter of time before some of these materials found their way into the works.” —Sopheap Pich
