Angkor, Cambodia, mid-1994: It was a crazy and dangerous time with the Khmer Rouge guerrillas still active and killing people – including 7 foreigners – back then; the temples were empty and silent and alittle spooky, monsoonal afternoons, birds, occasional gunfire – it was still mined and soldiers, checkpoints, tanks around as decades of war surrounded the temples, and in the hills were the KR.
During 2004 – 05, I returned to Cambodia twice – but not to Angkor as it’s a Disneyland, now – but to live for a year divided between Sihanoukville on the southern coast and later in the capital Phnom Pehn, where I made this art based on my photos and impressions of that earlier, lost era …
Since this series was made, in early 2008, I returned to Cambodia and shared the Angkor experience with a hot, Khmer lady-boy (her first time there) and a weird return amid crowds of Khmer families touring, wandering, picnicking on this national holiday; wow, Angkor’s still, a trip !
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