My artistic practice is largely informed by my experiences as a second generation Cambodian. Our parents and their peers suffer from undiagnosed PTSD and schizofrenia because they were war children, which had a detrimental effect in our homes growing up.
Experiencing loss and displacement in my child- and adulthood broke my heart completely, but also set it wide open: I learned to express compassion for others early on, and understood the power of creating space for voices unheard. Today I am especially moved by airing (hi)stories that are painful, complex and decolonial, because I believe reckoning with them will set everyone free.
Since 2023, I have had the wonderful opportunity to create kinetic and interactive sound installations together with artisans and engineers in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. These artworks are consulted by a fairly large number of different people each time, from culture bearers and close friends to scholars, who each provide an insightful perspective on my artworks.
I also create and perform extensive lecture-performances, which function as a way to 'consecrate'/'inaugurate' my artworks in the show, where I visually share about the development of the works and my thinking, sometimes DJ, and perform a Javanese–Khmer gratitude dance.
“Tol excels at unfolding the link between political and spiritual forms of reckoning. In her paintings, writing, and public projects she draws on her own experience — both of Cambodian tradition, and urban life, in Rotterdam, and London — to provide a profound understanding of what it means for cultures to exist „in the wake“ (as political theorist Christina Sharpe puts it) of tremendous violence caused by imperial expansion, and post-colonial displacement.
Tol vividly demonstrates in her art and writing how „keeping the wake“ can be a practice where communal mourning goes hand in hand with vivacious community building, and how young urban cultures may tap into old spiritual knowledge to acknowledge pain and loss, while seeking a future, and dignity in life.”
Jan Verwoert. Prof. of Art & Theory, writer & critic.
Samboleap Tol (b. 1990) focuses on unearthing the postcolonial diasporic psyche, with a central interest in questions of embodied psychological inheritance. She explores ideas of dignity, love, and faith that emerge after centuries of colonial brutality, investigating how truth-seeking can help restore dignity.
For over a decade, she has pursued this collaborative practice, engaging with members of different postcolonial communities around the world, from London to Yogyakarta to Rotterdam. Through storytelling in her kinetic and interactive artworks, she hopes to honor their spirits and stories.
In her prize-winning artwork , Dharma Songs v2 she channels these stories literally: in this interactive installation, viewers are invited to dip a flower in the water of a gong, and voices emerge. Six friends and family members from the postcolonial diaspora responded to her question:“If you have anything to share or ask with your ancestors, what would you say?”
Tol explores the connection between ancient and contemporary Southeast Asian cosmologies and the contemporary social realities of postcolonial descendants, as she seeks to address questions about how to relate to difficult pasts, untold truths, and the (unburied) dead.
She is deeply inspired by Khmer spiritual beliefs throughout the centuries, which is influenced by Theravada Buddhism, centuries of Hindu influence, diasporic Southern Chinese expressions of faith, and indigenous Khmer spirituality. Ancestral veneration, in particular, forms the cornerstone of her thinking.
Bio
Samboleap Tol (b. 1990) is a Khmer artist working between Rotterdam and Yogyakarta. She is a graduate of the Piet Zwart Institute, where she received the 2022 Masters Research Award, and studied Fine Arts at Central Saint Martins in London and Sint Lucas School of Arts and Design in Antwerp. Tol also holds degrees in Media from Erasmus University Rotterdam and the University of Sydney. .
She is the recipient of the 10th Dolf Henkes Prijs, a prestigious award for Rotterdam-based artists. Tol has exhibited her work at Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts (2025), Stedelijk Museum Schiedam (2025), Cemeti Institute for Art & Society (2023), TENT Rotterdam (2023), Gemaal op Zuid (2023), Rib Rotterdam (2023), Leiden University (2024), the Indonesian Visual Art Archive (2023), and more.
She has performed at South London Gallery (London, 2019), Framer Framed (Amsterdam, 2023), Tate Modern (London, 2018), Ufer Studios (Berlin, 2023), and de Balie (Amsterdam, 2023). She was an artist-in-residence at the Cemeti Institute for Arts and Society in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and Rib Rotterdam.
