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Two Hearts
ចិត្តពីរ
In the early 2000s, several major international news outlets along with some independent video bloggers circulated images and videos, and published articles of then seven-year-old Cambodian boy Oun Sambath with his pet giant python, Chamroeun (Khmer: ចំរើន). Their chance encounter is described by Sambath in part by saying: “My mom took me to a fortune teller who told her that we were brother and sister in a past life,” (Kohnert, Cambodia Daily, 2011).
In my attempts to reframe the spectacle of this child and animal, as objects of curiosity, I incorporate motifs of sentimentalism and vernacular Theravada Buddhism through a pop ballad—Two Hearts by Khmer artist Sokmean (a cover of the original Thai version) [1]— lyric captions/translations, rhythmic editing, and positioning the edited video on a CRT monitor atop a home shrine focalizes the precarity of human and non-human kinship against its perceived danger (i.e. predator and prey). Through this gentle intervention, the video considers our entangled gazes on the mediated reproduction 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 along with some independent video bloggers circulated images and videos, and published articles of then seven-year-old Cambodian boy Oun Sambath with his pet giant python, Chamroeun (Khmer: ចំរើន). Their chance encounter is described by Sambath in part by saying: “My mom took me to a fortune teller who told her that we were brother and sister in a past life,” (Kohnert, Cambodia Daily, 2011).
In my attempts to reframe the spectacle of this child and animal, as objects of curiosity, I incorporate motifs of sentimentalism and vernacular Theravada Buddhism through a pop ballad—Two Hearts by Khmer artist Sokmean (a cover of the original Thai version) [1]— lyric captions/translations, rhythmic editing, and positioning the edited video on a CRT monitor atop a home shrine focalizes the precarity of human and non-human kinship against its perceived danger (i.e. predator and prey). Through this gentle intervention, the video considers our entangled gazes on the mediated reproduction 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
