The mural, a swimming pool and education in Cambodia: two stories and a connection.

I’ve wanted to write these next thoughts for a long time.  But I’ve been delaying because I couldn’t quite get a handle on how to put it all together, so instead I’ll just tell two stories and let you make your own sense of it.  Story one this week, story two next time.  I am trying to link these stories to my own experiences working within the educational system of Cambodia.

Story one:  The Mural

In places like Oaxaca, Mexico and San Francisco, California,  murals are an integral part of the landscape. Public art is everywhere. But here in Cambodia, and I have traveled extensively in country, I have only seen one piece, at a rural school in Kampot province, far from the main roads, painted by kids, under the direction of a Peace Corp Volunteer.   And to call it public is a stretch, as no one outside this tiny village school will ever see it. So it was with great enthusiasm that I watched via social media the progress of a huge turquoise-hued mural depicting a local seamstress with needle in hand painted on the north wall of Phnom Penh’s White Building by American artist Miles MacGregor, known by the handle “El Mac. It portrayed local artisan Moeun Thary, who hand-embroiders traditional Khmer ceremonial garments and is a resident of the White Building. A ring of designs that had framed her portrait came from one of her dresses.  From the words of David Choe, the artist whose foundation underwrote this project: “El Mac in his ongoing pursuit of giving people without voices a voice, celebrates with this mural her (Thary’s) dedication to her community and preservation of the Cambodian culture.  Public art of this nature is a rarity in the capital city”.  I celebrated this on my own social media postings and couldn’t wait ‘till my next trip into Phnom Penh to see it in person.  But then, while visiting far-flung Ratanakiri province, I checked my instagram feed and saw articles from the Phnom Penh post and the Cambodian Daily, both English language newspapers based in the capital, with the headlines:

Cambodian Authorities Paint Over Mural Celebrating Local Seamstress.  

And then the photo:

I felt sucker-punched in a way I hadn’t before in Cambodia. After only 3 months here I had built up some sort of guard to keep me from teetering into rage or depression or some lethal combination of both, when witnessing the brand of brutality, corruption, ignorance, ineptitude and absolute disregard for the good of the people that this government operates under.  But this kicked right through that guard and there I am on the ropes again.  One government official said simply: “Authorities do not allow art like this, including graffiti in Phnom Penh.”  Another added: “ “The subject (Moeun Thary) was not well-known. The artist should depict a Khmer hero, instead”.

A few days later I found solace in the instagram posts by David Choe:  “When you silence art, it only gets louder”.

I sit along the Mekong and await the noise.

Coming in next post story two:  The swimming pool. And how this all connects to my education project here in Cambodia.