PHNOM PENH — In Quinn Libson’s works currently exhibited in Phnom Penh, the images of everyday life in the capital make it somewhat mysterious. No longer ordinary people and things but rather scenes that one day may be considered urban heritage.

The works she creates in tones of blue on white fabric are based on what she sees from her apartment in Boeng Keng Kang III, near the Russian Market. “My balcony has an incredible view of the city, it’s kind of all laid out in front of me,” she said.

Following what she has seen, Libson creates images featuring people and buildings that seem to float in scenes close to abstract.     

The images in the series she named “Q Prints” are done using a century-old technique called cyanotype.

“It comes from the word cyan, which means blue…It’s a photographic printing process…invented in the late 1800s,” Libson said. “In recent English, we call a blueprint a blueprint, a building plan a blueprint because it used to be that these plans were printed using the cyanotype process.

“In the late 1800s, early 1900s, because it was such a cheap, time-efficient process to print imagery, urbanists and urban documentarians used this medium to document the ways that cities were changing,” she said.

Libson, who is American, came across the material for this photo-printing process as she was touring an art supply store in United States a year or so ago. “I fell kind of head over heels in love with the process,” she said. “This kind of made me see the world in a different way.”

Since then, Libson has been experimenting with the technique. “Obsession, I think, is the right way to describe it,” she said.
 

But that she uses an old photo-printing technique linked to urbanism and city development for her artwork goes beyond coincidence.

Libson came to Cambodia in 2018 to cover the arts and culture in the country as a journalist for a newspaper.

But she soon focused on research, writing and editing, she said. Libson is now editor at Future Forum, a thinktank whose goal is to help young Cambodians develop positive policy solutions especially for the development of Phnom Penh and cities in the country.

Libson said that it has been her honor to serve as a sort of mentor to help these young researchers shape their ideas and translate them in “argumentative style” essays. “They were among of the first groups advocating for pedestrianizing riverside,” she said, and to suggest setting up time periods when streets are reserved for pedestrians along the river in Phnom Penh. 

So whether as an editor or at home, Libson focuses on Phnom Penh, present and future. Her artworks, she said, “are kind of exploring the form of a city and also exploring what it means to be someone who lives in the city.

“And making art, there is always the question you ask yourself: why me,” she said. “Why should I be the participant documenting this. But that is obviously an ongoing question that I will probably wrestle with the rest of my art practice.”

Quinn Libson’s series of work she has named “Q Prints” are exhibited at the Sundown Social Club from 5 p.m. on Saturday, June 7, to June 19.

The Sundown Social Club is located at 86 street 440, Russian Market, Phnom Penh.