Kep is welcoming Australian visual artist Julia Higgs for a two-month residency that will bring together art, nature, sustainability, and community engagement on Cambodia’s southern coast.
From August 22 to October 22, 2026, Higgs is taking part in the Art for Kep residency program at Knai Bang Chatt, using drawing, sculpture, installation, and performance to explore Kep’s rainforest, shoreline, natural light, and changing landscapes. Rather than arriving with a predetermined concept, she plans to develop new work through repeated observation and direct engagement with the town and its surroundings.
For Higgs, this approach is rooted in patience. Her artistic practice involves returning to places, watching and listening, and allowing changes in the environment to influence her work. Her residency in Kep continues this philosophy while drawing on her long-standing commitment to sustainable materials. She will work with repurposed fabrics, paper, charcoal, natural fibers, and biodegradable materials, while experimenting with locally sourced pigments such as turmeric and Kampot pepper. These familiar Cambodian ingredients will become artistic materials as well as tangible connections to the landscape and local culture.
The residency also has a personal dimension. Higgs first visited Kep in 2012 while travelling through Cambodia and remembers its quiet atmosphere, rainforest, coastline, and colonial-era buildings gradually being reclaimed by nature. Returning more than a decade later allows her to experience the town at a slower pace and transform those memories into a new body of work.
Higgs holds a Master of Visual Arts from the Australian National University and has undertaken artist residencies in the Netherlands, Finland, and the United Kingdom. Her work has been exhibited in Australia and Europe, including the 2023 exhibition About Drawing at Gladstone Regional Art Gallery and Museum. During her stay in Cambodia, she will also lead a community workshop, inviting local participants to explore their surroundings through creative activities and ephemeral materials. An open studio or public presentation is planned at the end of the residency.
Organized by Art for Kep, the program welcomes artists and creatives from Cambodia and abroad. Based at Knai Bang Chatt in Krong Kep, it adds another dimension to Kep’s growing appeal as a destination where nature, heritage, creativity, and contemporary Cambodian culture meet.
