︎︎︎
Two Hearts
ចិត្តពីរ
In the early 2000s, several major international news outlets and independent video bloggers published stories and shared images and videos of then-seven-year-old Cambodian boy Oun Sambath with his pet giant python, Chamroeun (Khmer: ចំរើន). Describing their “chance encounter,” Sambath recalls: “My mom took me to a fortune teller who told her that we were brother and sister in a past life” (Kohnert, The Cambodia Daily, 2011).
To reframe the spectacle of the child–animal pairing as mere curiosity, I draw on motifs of sentimentalism and vernacular Theravada Buddhism via the pop ballad Two Hearts by Khmer artist Sokmean (a cover of the original Thai version) [1] through lyric captions/translations and rhythmic editing. Installed on a CRT monitor set on a home shrine, the piece focalizes the fragile bonds of human–nonhuman kinship amid perceived danger (predator/prey) and considers how our gazes are shaped by the circulation of images of children from the Global South.
01.14.2023
A version of this piece was featured in Waiting for Enlightenment at Distillery Gallery, Boston.
Image caption
ចិត្តពីរ (Two Hearts), 2022. One-channel video (color, sound; 2 min.) and gold plastic home shrine. Dimensions variable.
Footnotes
[1] This song is a fanmade cover of สองใจ (Song Jai) by Thai singer Da Endorphine translated into Khmer and uploaded to YouTube in 2022.
Source Video Credits
Two Hearts
ចិត្តពីរ
In the early 2000s, several major international news outlets and independent video bloggers published stories and shared images and videos of then-seven-year-old Cambodian boy Oun Sambath with his pet giant python, Chamroeun (Khmer: ចំរើន). Describing their “chance encounter,” Sambath recalls: “My mom took me to a fortune teller who told her that we were brother and sister in a past life” (Kohnert, The Cambodia Daily, 2011).
To reframe the spectacle of the child–animal pairing as mere curiosity, I draw on motifs of sentimentalism and vernacular Theravada Buddhism via the pop ballad Two Hearts by Khmer artist Sokmean (a cover of the original Thai version) [1] through lyric captions/translations and rhythmic editing. Installed on a CRT monitor set on a home shrine, the piece focalizes the fragile bonds of human–nonhuman kinship amid perceived danger (predator/prey) and considers how our gazes are shaped by the circulation of images of children from the Global South.
01.14.2023
A version of this piece was featured in Waiting for Enlightenment at Distillery Gallery, Boston.
Image caption
ចិត្តពីរ (Two Hearts), 2022. One-channel video (color, sound; 2 min.) and gold plastic home shrine. Dimensions variable.
Footnotes
[1] This song is a fanmade cover of สองใจ (Song Jai) by Thai singer Da Endorphine translated into Khmer and uploaded to YouTube in 2022.
Source Video Credits
- "Cambodian Boy Keeps Python Pet." posted Nov 28, 2007, by SkyNews, YouTube, 1 min., 12 sec., http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy2dCikZ8a
- "The Cambodian Boy Who Sleeps with a Python." posted Sep 29, 2008, by Journeyman Pictures, YouTube, 5 min., 56 sec., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8uPhuXQNi target="_blank">www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8uPhuXQN
- “The Cambodian Boy Who Sleeps with a Python." posted Sep 29, 2008, by Journeyman Pictures, YouTube, 5 min., 56 sec., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8uPhuXQNi
- "A seven-year old boy in the Kandal province of Cambodia has a rather unusual best friend. Koun Saman" posted Jul 31, 2015, by AP Archive, YouTube, 1 min., 34 sec., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSIceJIIp48
- "Cambodia - 7-Year-Old Boy Has 4.8m Long Pet Python He Sleeps Curled Up With." posted Jul 21, 2015, by AP Archive, YouTube, 27 sec., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWeeQW-YIa
- "Boy's best friend: Cambodian python - 05 Feb 08." posted Feb 5, 2008, by Al Jazeera English, YouTube, 1 min., 53 sec., https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HgHwGdKq5
- "Snake boy in Cambodia." posted Aug 12, 2009, by John Einar Sandvand, YouTube, 2 min., 51 sec., hhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUAFXcOJAME
