April 3.2023
Kampot’s salt field trash is this year the material inspiration for fashion parades organized these March 24-25, and April 8 in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in Cambodia, by FICAC, Fish Island Community Arts Center, a vibrant, community arts center in Cambodia where young Cambodians learn art & design, music, cuisine culture, & English. This fashion work targeting sustainability is the creation of young salt workers, cooks, and designers at Fish Island Community Arts Centre in Kampot, who present this year a stunning photographic series and a fashion show of costumes created from trash.
“The Fish Island Community Arts Centre is situated alongside the salt fields of Treuy Kaoh (Fish Island) in Kampot and many of the center’s young students come from the local farms, fishing villages, and salt fields,” says Julien Poulson, Cambodian Space Project’s co-founder. “Looking at the models in their “salt field’s trash” outfits, you can also see the social ramifications and how many itinerant laborers such as the salt workers are sometimes perceived as tramps or hoboes,” he adds.
The Cambodian and Australian couple Kek Soon and Julien Poulson, who have backgrounds in music, cooking, hospitality, tourism, arts & culture, and community development, came up with the idea to create the Fish Island Community Arts Centre in 2019. They wanted to bring hope, sustainability, employment, and enrichment to Kampot’s primarily underprivileged fishing and farming communities.
Today, Ficac provides staff training in art & design, music, cuisine culture, and English, especially for women and children from underprivileged fishing and farming communities. Additionally, FICAC’s restaurant runs a junior chef training program, provides cooking classes to tourists, and suggests bamboo bungalows with lodging. They recently lounge the “Yellow Sub,” the recording studio for Fish Island Records, and FICAC’s digital media arts school and a reading room are scheduled to open in 2023.
To promote and showcase the work of Fish Island Community Arts Centre Ficac now focusing on a Kickstarter campaign to fund the “Salt Fields Trash Art Fashion” show while they are on tour with the Cambodian Space Project. This campaign will enable them to fund travel expenses and production costs for taking a team of 12 local students on tour and to present their stunning collection of costume designs, photography, and a live ‘catwalk’ performance where young artists model their creations.
On Friday, March 31, and Saturday, April 1, the Salt Fields Trash Fashion Show was part of the Garage Fest at the Villa Grange in Phnom Penh. On Saturday, April 8, the fashion show will also be presented at Star Bar in Siem Reap. More dates will be revealed later.
More info about Fish Island Community Arts Centre HERE
Kickstarter campain HERE
