The Thousands

What happened in Cambodia in the late seventies wasn’t very funny. Think Nazi Europe, minus the subtlety. The infamous former prison camp of Tuol Sleng, code-named S-21 by the Khmer Rouge regime, was the scene of some of the worst atrocities in the country’s recent history. Now overrun by more than thirty years of vegetation and decay, ‘Toul Sleng’ is the subject of David Kelly‘s solo exhibition at eye2eye Gallery.

The paintings depict the surfaces of the ruined prison – silent walls that nevertheless speak of the horrors of the former regime. The decaying concrete, the flaking paint, the starkly legible numbering – evidence of the dark bureaucracy that sprang up around the systematic torture and execution of an entire generation of Cambodians.

We are all aware of the piles of skulls that marked Pol Pot’s particular brand of mass-slaughter. Kelly’s paintings tell a more intimate story. "When walking the corridors of the former prison the silence and sense of reverent homage is enveloping," says Kelly. "The silent walls tell the stories of Cambodia’s devastating past so eloquently."